Prof. Antonio Lanzavecchia receives the 2017 Robert Koch Award

The Robert Koch Foundation is jointly awarding the 2017 Robert Koch Award to Professors Antonio Lanzavecchia and Rafi Ahmed. The award recognizes the two immunologists’ pioneering research on regulation of immune system and their ground-breaking contributions on the development of new vaccines and immunotherapies.

Prof. Antonio Lanzavecchia from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Università della Svizzera italiana, Bellinzona, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland is considered one of the most influential modern immunologists. Besides its immense range, the scientist’s comprehensive oeuvre is characterized by the great vision with which he investigated the molecular details of human immune response. For Lanzavecchia, this was always associated with the hope of better vaccines and more effective immunotherapies. Fundamental studies of the highly efficient division of labor between antigen-specific T- and B-cells in adaptive immune response were followed by in-depth cell biology research into the maturation process of dendritic cells in the mid-90s. They are the sentries of our immune system, and as such are responsible for stopping intruding pathogens and antigens, and presenting them to the cells of the immune system.

The Robert Koch Award is one of the most prestigious scientific awards in Germany. It is awarded annually, under the patronage of the German Minister of Health, for outstanding and internationally recognized scientific achievements. The awards will be presented at an official ceremony on November 3, 2017 at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin.

More information about the 2017 Robert Koch award and the Robert Koch Gold Medal can be found on the website of the Robert-Koch-Foundation.
Information on the Institute of Research in Biomedicine: www.irb.usi.ch