Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine 2022 for renowned virologist

© Uniklinikum Heidelberg

The virologist Professor Ralf Bartenschlager has received the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine 2022. The award, presented by the Jung Foundation for Science and Research, recognises scientists who conduct “work in the field of human medicine which is of particularly great clinical significance and may result in new, effective approaches to treatment being implemented in practice”.

Prof Bartenschlager, a scientist at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), researches so-called RNA viruses. These include the hepatitis C, dengue and Zika viruses, as well as coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2. His research on virus replication, interaction between viruses and the body's immune defences, mechanisms of action of antiviral therapies and the development of therapy resistance has been ground-breaking in antiviral drug development. For example, the cell culture propagation system of hepatitis C viruses he developed played a key role in the subsequent approval of the first drug against hepatitis C in 2014. This therapy now leads to a complete cure of the infection in 95 percent of those affected. 

Both hepatitis B and C can cause liver cancer if they are not treated successfully in time. Accordingly, in addition to his activities as a scientist in the DZIF research areas "Hepatitis" and "Emerging Infections" and as head of the Department of Molecular Virology at Heidelberg University Hospital, Prof Bartenschlager is also head of the Department of "Virus-Associated Carcinogenesis" at the German Cancer Research Center.

Prof Bartenschlager shares the prestigious 300,000 euro award equally with Prof Ingrid Fleming of Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Source: Press release (in German) of the University Hospital Heidelberg 

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