Balzan Prize Ceremony 2007: 1 Mio. Swiss Francs For Immunology

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 24 Nov 2007 - 5:00 PDT

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Bruce Beutler (USA) and Jules Hoffmann (France), The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, and Académie des Sciences, Paris, received one of the four International Balzan Prizes 2007 for research in the area of Innate Immunity. The prize has an endowment of CHF 1 million (EUR 610 thousand).

Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann were today awarded with the Balzan Prize 2007 in the field of Immunology for their discovery of the genetic mechanisms responsible for innate immunity by the International Balzan Foundation. They have worked in close cooperation to develop a new vision of the molecular defence strategy deployed by animals across a wide evolutionary spectrum against infectious agents. Their work has led to very promising medical applications. The award ceremony took place today in Berne, Switzerland.

Jules Hoffmann and his group at the University of Strasbourg showed that the encoding gene of a membrane receptor called Toll was decisive in triggering the defence of the fly Drosophila melanogaster against a mycotic infection. The Toll molecule has led to the discovery of a whole family of membrane receptors called TLR (Toll-Like Receptors) that are found in mammals and have thus rendered the understanding of innate immunity in higher organisms more complete.

Bruce Beutler was the first, in 1998, to clone the gene of one of these TLRs responsible for septic shock. Over 10 TLRs have subsequently been identified among the mammals. Thanks to the long line of discoveries begun with Jules Hoffmann and continued with Bruce Beutler, some essential factors of the interactions between the organism and its environment have therefore been revealed.

The International Balzan Prize Foundation, founded in 1957, promotes culture, science, and the most meritorious initiatives in the cause of humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples, regardless of nationality, race or creed throughout the world. It achieves its aim through the annual award of four prizes in two general fields: literature, the moral sciences and the arts; medicine and the physical, mathematical and natural sciences; each for the current value of CHF 1 million. Each prize winner must destine half of the prize for research work, preferably involving young researchers.

The Balzan Foundation also periodically awards a "Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples". The awards ceremony is held in alternate years in Rome, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, and in Berne, in the presence of the representative of the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation. The International Balzan Prize Foundation works from two different offices. The Balzan Foundation "Prize" (chaired in Milan by Ambassador Bruno Bottai) selects the subjects to be awarded and the candidates through its General Prize Committee, which is composed of eminent European members. The Balzan Foundation "Fund" (chaired in Zurich by Achille Casanova) administers the estate left by Eugenio Balzan.

Balzan Foundation

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