Professor Dr Hans-Georg Rammensee Awarded the Bayer Hansen Family Award 2013
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immatics biotechnologies GmbH has announced that the Company’s scientific inspirer and co-founder Professor Dr Hans-Georg Rammensee has been awarded the Hansen Family Award 2013 for his contribution to the advancement of cancer immunotherapy.
Hans-Georg Rammensee received his award at a ceremony in Berlin last night.
The Hansen Family Award was established in 2000 by Professor Kurt Hansen, former chairman of Bayer’s Management and Supervisory Board, to recognize medical achievements in German-speaking countries.
The award, which carries a prize money of 75.000 EUR, is presented every two years in alternation with the Otto Bayer Award and acknowledges innovative research in areas related to medical science and medicine.
This year the Hansen Family Award recognizes the contribution of Hans-Georg Rammensee to the field of immunology and particularly its translation into patient treatment as recently published in Nature Medicine by immatics, the University of Tuebingen and co-workers.
Hans-Georg Rammensee is Head of immatics’ Scientific Advisory Board and co-founder of the Company. He is currently Head of the Department of Immunology at the University of Tuebingen.
His work on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, which play a vital role in immune responses, and associated peptides is considered a cornerstone in the history of immunology.
He has authored more than 250 papers, many thereof published in journals like Nature and Science, and has co-edited several journals including Immunogenetics, Cellular and Molecular Life Science and European Journal of Immunology.
He has received numerous well known scientific awards for his work, e.g. the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 1992, the Robert Koch Prize 1993, and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 1996.
Dr Harpreet Singh, Chief Scientific Officer of immatics, said: “We are delighted that Hans-Georg has been recognized again for his pioneering contribution to immunology which has formed the basis of immatics’ innovative approach to developing therapeutic cancer vaccines. immatics has made significant progress with its lead vaccine IMA901 for advanced kidney cancer - progress that would have not been possible without the groundbreaking work by Hans-Georg.”
Professor Dr Hans-Georg Rammensee said: “I am thrilled to have received this award as the representative of a highly skilled and motivated team of researchers over the years. I am also very happy to see the progress that immatics has made in advancing its multi-peptide cancer vaccine IMA901 for the treatment of renal cancer patients. We have seen very encouraging results with this vaccine in the phase 2 trial making us believe that this approach has the potential to change the treatment of renal cancer, and most likely of other cancers as well, significantly.”
“Multipeptide immune response to cancer vaccine IMA901 after single-dose cyclophosphamide associates with longer patient survival,” Walter S., Weinschenk T. et al. (2012) Nature Medicine. Published online: 29 July 2012.
