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The Paul Ehrlich Foundation
Office of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation   Contents
Paul Ehrlich-Stiftung
c/o Vereinigung von Freunden und
Förderern der Goethe-Universität
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1               Preface                          5
60629 Frankfurt am Main
E-Mail: freunde@vff.uni-frankfurt.de
www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de            Paul Ehrlich: His Life
March 2021                              and Achievements                 6

                                        Ludwig Darmstaedter:
Donation account:                       Scientist and Friend             12
Deutsche Bank AG
IBAN: DE38 5007 0010 0700 0839 00
BIC: DEUTDEFFXXX                        The Foundation, the Prize
                                        and the Role of Hedwig Ehrlich   14

                                        The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig
                                        Darmstaedter Prize for Young
                                        Researchers                      17
Preface

In honor of the great German doctor and                Paul Ehrlich, like all great researchers, was
serologist who turned Frankfurt into a                 way ahead of his time. His research work
medical eldorado at the beginning of the               laid the cornerstone for the medical stand-
20th century, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig              ards still valid today. In awarding the Paul
Darmstaedter Prize is awarded to scientists            Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the
from all over the world who have achieved              Foundation wishes to encourage scientists all
outstanding results in Paul Ehrlich’s field            over the world to do what Paul Ehrlich did
of work.                                               throughout his entire life: extend medical
                                                       know-how and make a contribution to the
The prize given by the Paul Ehrlich                    constant struggle against illness and disease-
Foundation is one of Germany’s most emi-               induced mortality.
nent accolades in recognition of outstand-
ing achievements in biomedical research.
The President of the German Research
Foundation (DFG) is Honorary President
of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation. The prize-
giving ceremony is traditionally held every
year on March 14, Paul Ehrlich’s birthday,
in Frankfurt’s St. Paul’s church, a symbol
of German democracy and liberty.

The Foundation’s Scientific Council, whose
members include internationally renowned               Professor Dr. Thomas Boehm
scientists, has the formidable task of selecting       Max-Planck-Institute of Immunobiology
the best of the excellent world-wide. The list         and Epigenetics, Freiburg
                                                       Chairman of the Scientific Council of
of prize winners shows that the Council has
                                                       the Paul Ehrlich Foundation
lived up to this challenge. Many of the Paul
Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
winners have subsequently also received
the Nobel Prize. With the Paul Ehrlich
and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Young
Researchers, the Paul Ehrlich Foundation
created an important instrument to encour-
age young gifted scientists. It was awarded
for the first time in 2006.

                                                   5
Paul Ehrlich: His life                                                                       von Frerichs’ Second Medical Clinic at
                                                                                             the Charité hospital in Berlin.
                                                                                                                                                         oxygen, and thereby obtained evidence
                                                                                                                                                         of oxygen consumption in cells.
and Achievements
                                                                                                                                                         Ehrlich summarized the results of his
                                                                                                                                                         research in 1885 in the monograph:
Paul Ehrlich was born on March 14,               the cells absorbed the dye in different                                                                 “The organism’s need for oxygen: a
1854, in Strehlen/Silesia (now Strzelin,         ways: some parts were coloured deep                                                                     study based on analysis with dyes”,
Poland) into a prosperous family. His            blue, some had only absorbed small                                                                      with which he qualified for appoint-
father owned a thriving liqueur factory.         amounts of dye and others none at all.                                                                  ment to a professorial chair in 1887.
                                                 From now on, he concentrated entirely                                                                   This study not only had practical value,
Paul Ehrlich had watched liqueurs                on the staining of thin slices of tissue,                                                               but also raised intriguing questions for
being coloured in his father’s distillery        one of the most important techniques                                                                    which there were no answers or expla-
and was so fascinated by the process             in histology.                                                                                           nations at that time.
that he wanted to try it out for himself.
Legend has it that, as a seven-year-old          Paul Ehrlich finished grammar school        Paul Ehrlich in his office at the Royal Institute for       During his nine years at the Charité
                                                                                             Experimental Therapy in Frankfurt.
boy, he was caught by his mother trying          in 1872 and then went on to study                                                                       in Berlin, Ehrlich adopted two habits
to colour two pigeons by dipping them            medicine, first in Breslau, then in                                                                     which stayed with him throughout his
into a pot of paint. Whether the story is        Strasbourg. Here, two academic tutors                                                                   life: his private spelling system and a
true or not, colouring agents and dyes           gave all-important impulses to his          During his years at the Charité, Ehrlich                    passion for heavy black cigars, of which
occupied him throughout his life and             career. The anatomist Wilhelm von           made important contributions to                             he smoked up to 50 a day.
a child’s experiments developed into a           Waldeyer introduced him to the tech-        hæmatology, the study of the compo-
lifelong passion.                                niques of histological staining. The        nents of blood. Working on the foun-                        In 1882, Paul Ehrlich attended Robert
                                                 chemist Adolf von Baeyer encouraged         dations of medical bacteriology devel-                      Koch’s presentation of his sensational
Ehrlich attended grammar school in               his enthusiasm for chemistry. From his      oped by Louis Pasteur and Robert                            discovery of the tubercle bacillus at the
Breslau (now Wrocłav, Poland). During            first term onwards, Ehrlich’s goal was      Koch, Paul Ehrlich established a new                        German Physiological Society in Berlin.
this time, he was a frequent visitor             to understand the basic mechanisms by       diagnostic technique of staining blood                      He was inspired by the lecture and
to the house of one of his mother’s              which toxic compounds and chemical          cells. With this method, he succeeded                       referred to it in retrospect as “my great-
cousins, Carl Weigert (1845–1904), a             compounds act on the living cell. He        in differentiating lymphocytes and leu-                     est scientific experience”, but he no-
pathologist at the University of Breslau         believed that staining takes place in a     cocytes and sub-classifying leucocytes                      ticed at the same time that the staining
and later professor in Frankfurt. Weigert        chemical reaction and not in a purely       according to their stainability. The                        technique used by Koch was laborious
was an expert in colouring pathologi-            physical way (“Corpora non agunt nisi       principles of modern hæmatology are                         and unreliable. Within a day, he devel-
cal and anatomical specimens. In this            fixata”). This fundamental notion guid-     based on Paul Ehrlich’s staining meth-                      oped an improved and simple staining
field, he introduced what, at that time,         ed his work throughout his life. After      ods. He emphasized the significance of                      technique, which Koch acknowledged
were new synthetic colouring agents:             another semester in Freiburg, he passed     vital staining with methylene blue, i.e.                    “without any reservations”.
aniline dyes. Ehrlich once watched               his State Examination and received his      staining while upholding cell activity.
him producing wafer-thin slices of tis-          doctorate in 1878 at the University of      Another important finding by Ehrlich                        A year later, Paul Ehrlich married
sue and carefully staining them. Young           Leipzig. His doctoral thesis was enti-      was the selectivity of dyes in stain-                       Hedwig Pinkus, daughter of one of the
Ehrlich saw for the first time a fascinat-       tled “Contributions to the Theory and       ing cells and tissues. He observed, for                     most important manufacturers of linen
ing microcosm under the microscope:              Practice of Histological Staining”. In      example, that methylene blue stained                        and damask in Silesia.
bright blue and glowing particles of             the same year, he moved as Assistant        neural tissue only. He also discovered
stained tissue. He also observed that            Medical Director to Friedrich Theodor       the relative ability of tissue to absorb

                                             6                                                                                                       7
In 1884, Ehrlich was appointed titular                could it not be equally effective in       tant contributions to the development           Paul Ehrlich cooperated with Farbwerke
professor. A year later, Friedrich                    medication? His test persons were          of the diphtheria antitoxin, though             Hoechst, which supplied him with
Theodor von Frerichs died and Karl                    inmates of Moabit Prison suffering from    Emil von Behring excluded him from              dyes, with Arthur von Weinberg, co-
Gerhard, a man with a conservative                    serious neuralgic conditions. Not only     its commercial exploitation.                    proprietor of Cassella, and with Ludwig
scientific outlook, became head of the                did the dye actually reduce their pain,                                                    Darmstaedter. With Darmstaedter’s
clinic at the Charité. When Ehrlich dis-              two men with malaria were also suc-        Thanks to the evaluation process he             support the Chem­o­therapeutic
covered that he himself was suffering                 cessfully treated.                         developed for the diphtheria antitoxin,         Research Institute Georg-Speyer-Haus
from tuberculosis, and the working                                                               Ehrlich always retained his strong              was established in 1906, immediately
conditions at the Charité deteriorated                Paul Ehrlich formulated the theory of      interest in the subject of curative sera.       adjoining the Royal Institute for
permanently, he stepped down from                     side chains – the first broad concept of   At this time, a testing department was          Experimental Therapy. Paul Ehrlich
his position. Paul Ehrlich and his wife               the immunosystem. According to this        set up under Ehrlich’s leadership at the        was also appointed Director of his new
moved for two years to Egypt where he                 the specific immune defense develops       Institute for Infectious Diseases because       institution.
                                                      as a result of impurities, pathogens and   it had quickly become clear that serum
                                                      their toxins binding at the side chains    standardization had to be improved. In          Paul Ehrlich developed the idea of
                                                      (receptors) of certain cells. These side   1896, the Berlin Institute for Serum            combatting pathogens in the human
                                                      chains are then released as “antibodies”   Research and Testing was set up with            body and the toxins produced by them
                                                      into the bloodstream and generate an       the support of Friedrich Althoff,               using a chemical substance that binds
                                                      immune response. This theory was the       Director-General at the Prussian                with the pathogens and toxins. The
                                                      foundation of the steadily growing field   Ministry of Culture, and Paul Ehrlich           concentration of this chemical sub-
                                                      of biomedical science.                     was appointed its first director. Here          stance was to be effective, but not
                                                                                                 are the roots of the systematic evalua-         harmful to the body. Ehrlich, who had
                                                      In 1891, the Institute for Infectious      tion and official testing of numerous           a gift for formulating complex matters
                                                      Diseases was set up near the Charité,      curative sera that was to become one            in simple language, coined the phrases
                                                      and Paul Ehrlich moved there with his      of the most important tasks of the              “dosis tolerata” and “dosis curativa” for
                                                      laboratory, though without drawing a       Frankfurt Institute for Experimental            these two concepts. Against the back-
The central laboratory in the Georg-Speyer-Haus
in the 1920s.                                         salary from the Institute. His research    Therapy (today’s Paul Ehrlich Institute).       ground of his idea of resistance to
                                                      showed that by feeding small doses of                                                      medication, he searched for a sub-
recovered from his illness and, follow-               poison to laboratory animals and then      In 1899, the Berlin Institute moved to          stance that could destroy all pathogens
ing his return in 1891, was subsequent-               steadily increasing the dose, they grad-   Frankfurt am Main. At that time, the            at one blow, the “therapia sterilisans
ly cured by Koch’s tuberculin. After                  ually became immune to what would          city’s Lord Mayor, Franz Adickes, was           magna”. He called this selectively
return­ing to Berlin, Ehrlich set up a                otherwise have been lethal doses and       trying to attract eminent scientists to         applied medication the “magic bullet”.
small private laboratory.                             eventually developed a 100 to 1,000        Frankfurt. He planned to establish teach-
                                                      times higher toxin tolerance than          ing institutions for the training of sci-       Ehrlich’s years of research in Frankfurt
In this therapeutic experiments which                 untreated animals. Against the back-       entists. On November 8, 1899, and               mark the beginning of experimental
he performed in 1891 with Paul                        ground of these findings, Ehrlich devel-   again with Friedrich Althoff’s support,         chemotherapy. He discovered the effec-
Guttmann after leaving the Charité, he                oped the basic concept of active and       Ehrlich became the first director of the        tivity of trypan red, a dye, in the treat-
sought answers to two questions: first-               passive immunization. Together with        Royal Institute for Experimental                ment of trypanosome infections in
ly, is it possible to use dyes not only to            Ludwig Brieger, he successfully pro-       Therapy (today’s Paul Ehrlich Institute).       mice related to human sleeping sick-
stain cells, but also for therapeutic pur-            duced anti-toxic sera from the blood of    The well-equipped chemicals firms               ness. In cooperation with Robert Koch,
poses; and secondly, if methylene blue                immunized laboratory animals. In this      located in and around Frankfurt were            he researched into the use of atoxyl,
is so effective in staining neural tissue,            connection, Ehrlich also made impor-       keenly interested in serum research.            an arseno-benzene derivative, and in

                                                  8                                                                                          9
1907 described the development of                 by Farbwerke Hoechst. Soon after that,
trypanosome resistance to continued               Ehrlich discovered an even more effec-
exposure to atoxyl.                               tive modification, Neo-salvarsan. As
                                                  the first ever antimicrobial chemothera-
For Ehrlich, the discovery of atoxyl was          peutic agent, Salvarsan not only
a breakthrough for his future research            allowed an effective therapy of syphilis,
work. Based on his research findings              but also opened up a new direction in
until then, he recognized the great               research which led, a generation later,      Paul Ehrlich with his co-workers in the garden of the Royal Institute for Experimental Therapy in
potential in atoxyl. He synthesized               to the sulfonamides and the antibiotics.     Frankfurt.
hundreds of derivatives by substitution
of the amino groups attached to ben-              In 1908, Paul Ehrlich and Ilya Ilyich        place of chemotherapy, went forward                     August 20, 1915. He was buried at the
zene. He was firmly convinced that                Mechnikov together received the Nobel        with serum therapy and made valuable                    Old Jewish Cemetery in Rat-Beil-
some homologues would have the                    Prize for Medicine “for invaluable ser-      contributions to immunology and can-                    Straße. Emil von Behring wrote in his
desired specificity with less toxicity,           vices to medical and biological research,    cer research.                                           obituary: “With you, Paul Ehrlich, a
which could be important for selective            namely the evaluation and control of                                                                 man from the heroic age of experimen-
chemotherapy. On this basis, Ehrlich              sera”. Ehrlich emphasized in his Nobel       His experimental observations, his abil-                tal therapeutic research has left us, a
and his assistant Sahachiro Hata devel-           Prize lecture that “we are approaching       ity to draw scientific conclusions, his                 man who was a king in the realm of
                                                  the limits of what the microscope could      talents in the theoretical and, last but                the science which you yourself estab-
                                                  do and has done for us and the use of        not least, rhetorical field, Ehrlich                    lished and a teacher to countless
                                                  optical … instruments cannot master          proved his exceptional far-sightedness                  researchers throughout the world.”
                                                  the challenge of penetrating further         and his gift for effectively analyzing sci-
                                                  into the all-important problem of cell       entific data. His revolutionary approach
                        Paul Ehrlich and
                        his Japanese co-          life. But the time has now come to           consisted in the idea that biological
                        worker, Sahachiro         venture into the finest chemism of cell      processes are based on chemical reac-
                        Hata, with whom           life and to break down the concept of        tions and thus open to quantitative
                        he discovered the
                        preparation 606           cell into a large number of separate         analysis. In the whole history of medi-
                        (Salvarsan).              partial functions. But since what hap-       cine, few achievements can match
                                                  pens in the cell is largely of a chemical    those of Paul Ehrlich.
oped the famous compound 606                      nature and since the composition of
(Salvarsan). His co-worker, the chemist           chemical structures is largely beyond        In 1911, Paul Ehrlich was honoured
Dr. Alfred Bertheim, was closely                  the boundaries of visibility, we shall       with the highest award the Prussian
involved in this work. It was he who              have to look for different research          state could make: he was appointed
conducted the synthesis and his name              methods. This direction is not only          Wirklicher Geheimrat or Real Privy
is on the patent together with that of            important for a real understanding of        Councillor with the title “Excellency”.
Ehrlich, while Hata demonstrated the              the mechanisms of life itself, but is also   In 1912 the city of Frankfurt made him
effectiveness of Salvarsan. This proved           the basis for a truly rational use of        an honorary citizen. Frankfurt
to be the first drug effective in destroy-        active ingredients.” Today, a century        Universi­ty was founded in 1914 and
ing Spirochaeta pallida, the cause of             later, we recognize how right he was.        Paul Ehrlich was to become its first rec-
syphilis. In November 1910, the pro-              His pioneering research laid the foun-       tor. Owing to his failing health, how-
duction of diaminodioxy-arseno-benzole,           dations for hæmotology and clinical          ever, he turned down this office. Paul
known as Salvarsan, was started                   cytology. He made Frankfurt the birth-       Ehrlich died in Bad Homburg on

                                             10                                                                                                   11
Ludwig Darmstaedter:                                                                          before his death, he began to buy
                                                                                              stamps and had soon built up a large
                                                                                                                                                  October 17, 1927, Ludwig Darmstaedter
                                                                                                                                                  died of angina pectoris in Berlin.
Scientist and Friend                                                                          and valuable collection.

The radical change in medicine at                patent for the production of lanoline,
the beginning of the 20th century in             which was used in the manufacture of
Germany can be credited not only                 skin care products, cosmetics and phar-
to Paul Ehrlich, but also to Ludwig              maceuticals. In 1900, the company was
Darmstaedter. He was a man with                  converted into a joint stock corpora-                             The Royal Institute for
a wide range of interests and a pro-             tion and Ludwig Darmstaedter became                               Experimental Therapy
nounced sense of social responsibility.          a member of the advisory board. In                                in Frankfurt around
                                                                                                                   1900.
                                                 1904, Darmstaedter, who had always
He was born on August 9, 1846 in                 had a great interest in the history of                                                             The Georg-Speyer-Haus soon after
Mannheim as the tenth and youngest               chemistry, published jointly with René       In 1872, Darmstaedter married Marie                   its construction.
child of a wealthy merchant. After los-          Du Bois-Reymond “4000 Years of               Gumbert, the sister of Franziska Speyer,
ing both parents at an early age, he was         Pioneering Work in the Exact Sciences”,      wife of Frankfurt banker Georg Speyer.
raised by a stepbrother many years his           which he expanded in the following           Darmstaedter encouraged his sister-in-
elder.                                           years. In 1908, he reissued it under his     law to support Paul Ehrlich’s research
                                                 name as “Handbook on the History of          work. In 1904, Franziska Speyer set up
In his early youth, he had already               the Natural Sciences and Technology”.        a foundation and donated one million
shown an interest in geology and min­                                                         marks for the establishment of an insti­-
eralogy. At the age of 18, he studied            Throughout his life, Darmstaedter was a      tute. In memory of her deceased hus-
mineralogy and chemistry at the                  passionate collector. At the age of 60,      band, it was named the Chemo­
University of Heidelberg, where he               he retired from the board of directors in    therapeutic Research Institute Georg-
                                                                                                                                                    In the 1920s, the Royal Institute for
received his doctorate four years later.         order to devote himself entirely to his      Speyer-Haus. After her death in 1909,                 Experimental Therapy and the Georg-Speyer-
During his studies, he was influenced by         scientific studies and collections. The      further funds out of her estate were                  Haus were joined by a common entrance.
Robert Bunsen, Emil Erlenmeyer and               outcome was an unparalleled collection       donated to the Institute, which was
Gustav Kirchhoff. In the following years         of autographs by important natural sci-      directly adjacent to the Royal Institute
he lived in Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. He        entists and medical researchers as well      for Experimental Therapy and of which
researched intensively on questions that         as politicians, artists and intellectuals.   Paul Ehrlich was Director.
were of interest to the burgeoning               It is known today as the “Darmstaedter
chemicals industry at that time and pub-         Collection of the State Library of the       On the occasion of Darmstaedter’s 80th
lished studies on naphthol, dinitronaph-         Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation        birthday in 1926 and in his honour, the
thalin and lanoline. Having spent sever-         in Berlin”. In 1907, he donated the col-     Chemotherapeutic Research Institute
al years in England, Belgium and Spain,          lection to the state and enlarged it until   Georg-Speyer-Haus Foundation created
he returned to Germany and became a              his death in 1927. At that time it con-      the Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in recog­
partner in Benno Jaffé’s ammonia and             sisted of 190,000 manuscripts. Starting      nition of his support for Paul Ehrlich.
                                                                                              The prize was to be awarded once every                Both buildings are now situated in Paul-
glycerol business in Berlin. The firm,           with minerals and crystals as a young                                                              Ehrlich-Strasse 42–44 in Frankfurt.
Jaffé & Darmstaedter, became very                man, he also began to collect porcelain      three years for outstanding work in the
important as a result of acquiring the           in 1879. At the age of 78, three years       fields of chemo­therapy and biology. On

                                            12                                                                                               13
The Foundation, the                               Thanks to the efforts of Günter K.
                                                  Schwerin, grandson of Hedwig and Paul
                                                                                              Choosing the winners of the Paul
                                                                                              Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
                                                                                                                                                Moreover, the Foundation also grants
                                                                                                                                                scholarships to support the work of
Prize and the Role of                             Ehrlich and long-time honorary mem-         is the most important task of the                 young researchers in the disciplines
                                                  ber of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation, the     Scientific Council.                               mentioned above.
Hedwig Ehrlich                                    former Royal Institute for Experimental
                                                  Therapy was renamed after its founder,      According to the Articles of the                  Today, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig
Paul Ehrlich’s widow, Hedwig Ehrlich,             Paul Ehrlich, in 1947. Günter K.            Foundation, the Board of Trustees is              Darmstaedter Prize is one of the most
donated the sum of 90,000 marks to the            Schwerin died on May 19, 1997 at the        obliged to initiate all measures appropri-        important and distinguished awards in
Association of Friends and Patrons of             age of 87 in Munich and is buried in        ate to achieving the objectives of the            biomedical research in Germany. Each
Frankfurt University for a Paul Ehrlich           Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne,       Foundation, in particular to preserve and         year on March 14, the date of Paul
Fund. On July 13, 1929, fourteen years            New York.                                   increase the assets of the Foundation.            Ehrlich’s birthday, the prize-giving cer-
after Paul Ehrlich’s death, the fund was                                                      The objective of the Paul Ehrlich                 emony takes place in Frankfurt’s historic
transferred to the Paul Ehrlich Founda-           The Paul Ehrlich Foundation resumed         Foundation is to preserve Paul Ehrlich’s          St. Paul’s Church. The prize is presently
tion. Since then, the foundation’s assets         its work in 1952. The Scientific Council    scientific heritage and his memory and            endowed with € 120,000.
have been administered on a trust basis           of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation and the
by the Association of Friends and                 Board of Directors of the Foundation
Patrons of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe             Georg-Speyer-Haus Institute for Bio­
University Frankfurt am Main e.V. The             medical Research as it was now called
Paul Ehrlich Prize was first awarded in           resolved in 1952 to unite the Paul Ehr­
1930 to scientists from Germany and               lich Prize and the Ludwig Darmstaedter
abroad for their valuable contributions           Prize. According to the agreement, the
in Paul Ehrlich’s fields of work.                 new prize is awarded in accordance
                                                  with the Articles of Association of the
When National Socialism came to power             Paul Ehrlich Foundation.
in 1933, the Paul Ehrlich Foundation
could not continue to function, and in            Since 1960, the Federal Ministry of
1934 the Paul Ehrlich Prize also ceased           Health has made an annual contribu-
to be awarded – temporarily. All of the           tion of currently € 60,000 in recognition
Jewish employees of the Georg-Speyer-             of Paul Ehrlich’s work and his great ser-                                                                 Holiday in the mountains:
                                                                                                                                                            the young couple Hedwig
Haus were dismissed in 1935, and all              vices to mankind.                                                                                         and Paul Ehrlich.
papers and studies that bore the name of
Paul Ehrlich were removed from the                The Honorary President, the Scientific
Institute. Paul-Ehrlich-Straße was re­            Council and the Board of Trustees           to protect the will of its settlor, Hedwig        The prize winner receives a certificate
named Ludwig-Rehn-Straße in 1938                  comprise the Paul Ehrlich Foundation.       Ehrlich. In that spirit and irrespective          and a gold copy of the original medal of
and was only changed back to Paul-                The names of the members can be             of nationality, race, confession, origin          the Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize carrying
Ehrlich-Straße in 1945. Hedwig Ehrlich            found on the website of the Paul            or gender, scientists are honoured for            the portrait of Paul Ehrlich. Since 1952,
first emigrated to Switzerland and sub-           Ehrlich Foundation.                         their valuable research results in Paul           the prize has been awarded to more
sequently to the United States of America.                                                    Ehrlich’s fields of work, especially in           than 100 scientists who have made
She died in a hospital in New York City           The members of the Scientific Council       experimental and chemotherapeutic                 important contributions to Paul Ehrlich’s
on December 20, 1948 and is buried in             are leading scientists from all over the    hæmatology, clinical bacteriology,                pioneering work.
Westchester in the State of New York.             world.                                      immunology, and cancer research.

                                             14                                                                                            15
Many winners of the Paul Ehrlich and
Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize have also                                                                The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darm­
received the Nobel Prize:                                                                          staedter Prize for Young Researchers
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Adolf Butenandt                                                           The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darm­
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Sir E. Boris Chain                                                              staedter Prize for Young Researchers
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Domagk
                                                                                                   has been awarded by the Paul Ehrlich
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Richard Kuhn
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Otto Warburg                                                              Foundation since 2006. It is awarded
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. F. Peyton Rous                                                            annually to a young scientist working
Prof. Dr. Renato Dulbecco                                                                          at a research institute in Germany
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ernst Ruska                                                                     for outstanding accomplishments in
Prof. Dr. Niels Jerne                                                                              the field of biomedical research.The
Prof. Dr. Peter C. Doherty                                                                         prize is worth up to € 60,000 and
Prof. Dr. Rolf M. Zinkernagel                                                                      must be used completely for research
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Manfred Eigen                                                             purposes. Nominees for the Young
Prof. Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner                                                                      Researchers Prize can be suggested
Prof. Dr. Robert Horvitz                                                                           by university lecturers as well as senior
Prof. Dr. Barry J. Marshall
                                                                                                   scientists of research institutes in
Dr. J. Robin Warren                                  St. Paul‘s Church in Frankfurt, a national
Prof. Dr. Andrew Z. Fire                             symbol of freedom and democracy in Germany.   Germany.
Prof. Dr. Craig C. Mello

                                                  Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Harald zur Hausen
                                                  Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath                             The junior scientists must be younger
                                                  Prof. Dr. Carol Greider                          than 40 years. Prize winners are
                                                  Prof. Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn                 selected by the Scientific Council of the
                                                  Prof. Dr. James P. Allison                       Paul Ehrlich Foundation following the
                                                  Prof. Dr. Jennifer Doudna                        suggestions by a selection commission
                                                  Prof. Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier                 comprising eight German scientists.

  The interior of St. Paul‘s Church at the                                                                                                          Every winner of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig
  award ceremony in 2005. In the fore-                                                                                                              Darmstaedter Prize receives a golden medallion
  ground is the bust of Paul Ehrlich.                                                                                                               with a portrait of Paul Ehrlich.

                                             16                                                                                                17
Executive Editor

Paul Ehrlich-Stiftung
c/o Vereinigung von Freunden und
Förderern der Goethe-Universität
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1
60629 Frankfurt am Main
E-Mail: freunde@vff.uni-frankfurt.de
www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de
The Paul Ehrlich Foundation

       Prize Winners 1952–2021
Scientific Council and Board of Trustees
    of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation
Members of the Scientific Council

                               Chairman of the Scientific Council                                           President
Prof. Dr. Thomas Boehm         of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation          Prof. Dr. Klaus Cichutek             Paul Ehrlich Institute
                               Max-Planck-Institute of Immunobiology                                        Langen, Germany
                               and Epigenetics
                               Freiburg, Germany

                               Deputy Chairman                                                              Institute Pasteur
Prof. Dr. Stefan Zeuzem        of the Scientific Council               Prof. Dr. Pascale Cossart            Paris, France
                               Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
                               of the Goethe University
                               Frankfurt am Main, Germany

                               Chairman of the Association                                                  University of Colorado
Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Bender       of Friends and Sponsors of the          Prof. Dr. Charles A. Dinarello       Anschutz Medical Campus
                               Goethe University                                                            Aurora, Colorado, USA
                               Frankfurt am Main, Germany

                               Federal Ministry of Health                                                   Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malade
Dr. Antina Ziegelmann          Permanent Representative                Prof. Dr. Alain Fischer              Paris, France
                               of the Federal Minister of Health
                               on the Scientific Council
                               Berlin, Germany

                           2                                                                            3
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult.       Former President                                               The University of California, San
Jörg Hacker                    German National Academy of        Prof. Dr. Peter Walter       Francisco (UCSF)
                               Sciences Leopoldina                                            Dept of Biochemistry & Biophysics
                               Halle, Germany                                                 San Francisco, USA

                               Karolinska Institute              Prof. Dr. Sir                MRC Laboratory of Molecular
Prof. Dr. Klas Kärre           Stockholm, Sweden                 Gregory Winter               BiologyCambridge, UK
                                                                                              Nobel Prize Chemistry 2018

Prof. Dr.                      Howard Hughes Medical Institute                                Weizman Institute
Philippa Marrack, Ph.D.        National Jewish Health            Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath         Director Kimmelman Center
                               Denver, USA                                                    of Biomolecular Structure
                                                                                              and Assembly
                                                                                              Rehovot, Israel
                                                                                              Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2009

Prof. Dr. Sir                  MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
John Walker                    Cambridge, UK
                               Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1997

                           4                                                              5
Members of the Board                       Members

of Trustees                                Dr. Jan Adams                           Dr. Joern-Peter Halle                   Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff
                                           Chief Scientific Officer                Vice President, Global Head             President
                                           Grünenthal GmbH                         External Innovation Merck Serono        Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Honorary Chairman                          Aachen, Germany                         Merck KGaA                              Frankfurt am Main, Germany
                                                                                   Darmstadt, Germany
Volker Bouffier                            Dr. Christian Biedenkopf                                                        Dr. Cathrin Schleussner
Prime Minister of the State of Hesse       Member of the Management Board          Rudolf Herfurth                         Vice Chairman of the
Wiesbaden, Germany                         Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA                 Member of the Foundation Board          Supervisory Board
                                           Bad Homburg, Germany                    Else Kröner-Fresenius-Foundation        Biotest AG
Chairman                                                                           Bad Homburg, Germany                    Dreieich, Germany
                                           Dr. Ulrich Bollert
                                           Great Grandson of                       Dr. Stefan von Holtzbrinck              Gerhard Wiesheu
Prof. Dr. Jochen Maas
                                           Ludwig Darmstaedter                     Chief Executive Officer                 Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Head of Research and Development
                                           Bexbach, Germany                        Holtzbrinck Publishing Group            Georg Speyer Haus
Member of the Management Board
                                                                                   Stuttgart, Germany                      Partner and Member of the Managing
Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH
                                           Dr. Christoph Bug                                                               Committee B. Metzler seel.
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
                                           Director Medical & Scientific Affairs   Dr. Petra Moroni-Zentgraf               Sohn & Co. Holding AG
                                           Janssen-Cilag GmbH                      Medical Director Germany                Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Deputy Chairman                            Neuss, Germany                          Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma
                                                                                   GmbH & Co. KG
Prof. Dr. Florian R. Greten                Dr. Hendrik von Büren                   Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany
Director                                   Managing Director R&D
Georg-Speyer-Haus                          und Senior Director Development         Dr. Christian Rommel
Institute for Tumor Biology                Sciences                                Head of Research and Development
and Experimental Therapy                   AbbVie GmbH & Co. KG                    Bayer Healthcare
Frankfurt am Main, Germany                 Wiesbaden, Germany                      Bayer AG
                                                                                   Leverkusen, Germany
                                           Dr. Matthias Essenpreis
                                           Chief Technology Officer                Thomas Rosenfeld
                                           Roche Diagnostics                       Member of the Board of Management
                                           F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.               Baden-Württembergische Bank
                                           Basel, Switzerland                      Aachen, Germany

                                       6                                                                               7
Harald zur Hausen        Tim J. Schulz, Laureate of the Prize for Young      Claus-Dieter Kuhn, Laureate of the Prize for Young Researchers      Barry J. Marshall      J. Robin Warren        Peter G. Schultz
Laureate 1994            Researchers 2018; David Wallach, Laureate 2018;     2016; Jennifer A. Doudna, Laureate 2016; Emmanuelle Charpentier,    Laureate 1997          Laureate 1997          Laureate 2003
Nobel Prize 2008         Anthony Cerami, Laureate 2018                       Laureate 2016                                                       Nobel Prize 2005       Nobel Prize 2005

 Ana Martin-Villalba, Laureate of the Prize for                                                                                                                  Harry Noller, Laureate 2007
 Young Researchers 2006                                                                                                                                          Ada Yonath, Laureate 2007, Nobel Prize 2009
 Andrew Z. Fire, Laureate 2006, Nobel Prize 2006
 Craig C. Mello, Laureate 2006, Nobel Prize 2006

                                                       Shimon Sakaguchi, Laureate 2020; Judith Reichmann, Laureate of the Prize for Young Researchers 2020
                                                       (from left to right)

 Raja Atreya, Laureate of the Prize for Young                                                                                                                    Elizabeth Blackburn, Laureate 2009,
 Researchers 2015                                                                                                                                                Nobel Prize 2009
 James P. Allison, Laureate 2015                                                                                                                                 Falk Nimmerjahn, Laureate of the Prize for
 Carl H. June, Laureate 2015                           Franz-Ulrich Hartl, Laureate 2019, Arthur L.       Volker Busskamp, Laureate of the Prize for Young       Young Researchers 2009
                                                       Horwich, Laureate 2019, Dorothee Dormann,          Researchers 2017; Yuan Chang, Laureate 2017;           Carol Greider, Laureate 2009, Nobel Prize 2009
                                                       Laureate of the Prize for Young Researchers 2019   Patrick S. Moore, Laureate 2017
Prize Winners of the Paul Ehrlich                          1972   Dr. Dr. h.c. Denis P. Burkitt, London/Uganda
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jan Waldenström, Malmö
and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize                              1973   Prof. Dr. Sir Anthony Epstein, Bristol
                                                                  Prof. Dr. K. Ishizaka, Baltimore
                                                                  Prof. Dr. D. H. Wright, Southampton
                                                           1974   Prof. Dr. J. L. Gowans, Oxford
                                                                  Prof. Dr. J. F. A. P. Miller, Melbourne
1952   Prof. Dr. Gerhard Eißner, Tübingen
                                                           1975   Prof. Dr. George B. Mackaness, Saranac Lake
       Prof. Dr. Wolf-H. Wagner, Nonnenhorn
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Nicholas A. Mitchison, London
1953   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Adolf Butenandt, Munich
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Morten Simonsen, Copenhagen
1954   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Sir E. Boris Chain, London
                                                           1976   Prof. Dr. Georges Barski, Villejuif
1956   Prof. Dr. Gerhard Domagk, Elberfeld
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Boris Ephrussi, Gif-sur-Yvette
1958   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Richard Kuhn, Heidelberg
                                                           1977   Prof. Dr. T. Caspersson, Stockholm
1960   Prof. Dr. Felix Haurowitz, Bloomington
                                                                  Prof. Dr. J. B. Gurdon, Cambridge
1961   Prof. Dr. Albert H. Coons, Boston
                                                           1978   Prof. Dr. Ludwik Gross, New York
       Prof. Dr. Günther Heymann, Langen
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Werner Schäfer, Tübingen
       Prof. Dr. Örjan E. Ouchterlony, Göteborg
                                                           1979   Prof. Dr. Arnold Graffi, Berlin
       Prof. Dr. Jacques Oudin, Paris
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Otto Mühlbock, Amsterdam
1962   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Otto Warburg, Berlin
                                                                  Prof. Dr. Wallace P. Rowe, Bethesda
1963   Prof. Dr. Helmut Holzer, Freiburg
       Dr. Lothar Jaenicke, Cologne                        1980   Prof. Dr. Tomoichiro Akiba, Saitama
       Dr. Detlev Kayser, Berlin                                  Prof. Dr. Hamao Umezawa, Tokyo
       Prof. Dr. Tullio Terranova, Rome                    1981   Prof. Dr. Stanley Falkow, Seattle
1964   Prof. Dr. Fritz Kauffmann, Copenhagen                      Prof. Dr. Susumu Mitsuhashi, Gunma-Ken
1965   Prof. Dr. Otto Lüderitz, Freiburg                   1982   Prof. Dr. Niels Jerne, Castillon du Gard
       Prof. Dr. Léon Le Minor, Paris                      1983   Prof. Dr. Peter C. Doherty, Canberra
       Dr. Ida Ørskov, Copenhagen                                 Dr. Michael Potter, Bethesda
       Dr. Fritz Ørskov, Copenhagen                               Prof. Dr. Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Zurich
       Prof. Dr. B. A. D. Stocker, Stanford                1984   Prof. Dr. Piet Borst, Amsterdam
1966   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. F. Peyton Rous, New York          Prof. Dr. George A. M. Cross, New York
1967   Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Bernhard, Villejuif               1985   Prof. Dr. Ernest Bueding, Baltimore
       Prof. Dr. Renato Dulbecco, San Diego                       Dr. Louis H. Miller, Bethesda
1968   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Walter T. J. Morgan, London             Prof. Dr. Ruth Sonntag Nussenzweig, New York
       Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Otto Westphal, Montreux          1986   Dr. Abner L. Notkins, Bethesda
1969   Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Nikaido, Boston                   1987   Prof. Dr. Jean F. Borel, Basel
       Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Staub, Paris                          Prof. Dr. Hugh O. McDevitt, Stanford
       Prof. Dr. Winifred M. Watkins, London                      Prof. Dr. Felix Milgrom, Buffalo
1970   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ernst Ruska, Berlin              1988   Prof. Dr. Peter K. Vogt, Los Angeles
       Prof. Dr. Helmut Ruska, Düsseldorf                  1989   Dr. Stuart A. Aaronson, Bethesda
1971   Prof. Dr. Albert Claude, Brussels                          Prof. Dr. Russell F. Doolittle, La Jolla
       Prof. Dr. Keith R. Porter, Boulder                         Prof. Dr. Thomas Graf, Heidelberg
       Prof. Dr. Fritiof Sjöstrand, Los Angeles

                        10                                                         11
1990   Prof. Dr. R. John Collier, Boston                        2014   Prof. Dr. Michael Reth, Freiburg
       Prof. Dr. A. M. Pappenheimer, Jr., Cambridge             2015   Prof. Dr. James P. Allison, Houston
1991   Dr. Rino Rappuoli, Siena                                        Prof. Dr. Carl H. June, Philadelphia
       Prof. Dr. Michio Ui, Tokyo                               2016   Prof. Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Berlin
1992   Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Manfred Eigen, Göttingen               Prof. Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna, Berkeley
1993   Prof. Philippa Marrack, Ph.D., Denver                    2017   Prof. Dr. Yuan Chang, Pittsburgh
       Prof. John W. Kappler, Ph.D., Denver                            Prof. Dr. Patrick S. Moore, Pittsburgh
       Prof. Dr. Harald von Boehmer, Basel                      2018   Prof. Dr. Anthony Cerami, San Diego
1994   Prof. Dr. Peter Howly, Boston                                   Prof. Dr. David Wallach, Rehovot
       Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Harald zur Hausen, Heidelberg   2019   Prof. Dr. Franz-Ulrich Hartl, München
1995   Prof. Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, San Francisco                    Prof. Dr. Arthur L. Horwich, New Haven
1996   Prof. Pamela J. Bjorkman, Ph.D., Pasadena                2020   Prof. Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi, Osaka
       Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Rammensee, Heidelberg               2021   Prof. Dr. Bonnie L. Bassler, Princeton
       Prof. Jack L. Strominger, Ph.D., Cambridge                      Prof. Dr. Michael Silverman, Moran, WY
1997   Prof. Dr. Barry J. Marshall, Charlottesville
       Dr. J. Robin Warren, Perth
1998   Prof. Dr. David P. Lane, Dundee
       Prof. Dr. Arnold J. Levine, Princeton                    Prize Winners of the Paul Ehrlich
       Prof. Dr. Bert Vogelstein, Baltimore                     and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for
1999   Prof. Dr. Robert C. Gallo, Baltimore                     Young Researchers
2000   Prof. H. Robert Horvitz, Ph.D., Cambridge
       Prof. John F. R. Kerr, Ph.D., Hamilton                   2006   Dr. Ana Martin-Villalba, Heidelberg
2001   Prof. Stephen C. Harrison, Ph.D., Cambridge, USA         2007   Dr. Michael Schindler, Ulm
       Prof. Michael G. Rossmann, Ph.D., West Lafayette         2008   PD Dr. Eckhard Lammert, Dresden
2002   J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., Rockville                        2009   Prof. Dr. Falk Nimmerjahn, Erlangen-Nürnberg
2003   Prof. Dr. Richard A. Lerner, M.D., La Jolla              2010   Prof. Dr. Amparo Acker-Palmer, Frankfurt
       Prof. Dr. Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., La Jolla              2011   Dr. Stephan Grill, Dresden
2004   Prof. Mark M. Davis, Ph.D., Stanford                     2012   Prof. Dr. Kathrin Maedler, Bremen
       Prof. Tak W. Mak, Ph.D., Toronto                         2013   Dr. James Poulet, Berlin
2005   Prof. Ian Wilmut, O.B.E., F.R.S., F.R.S.E., Roslin       2014   Dr. Andrea Ablasser, Bonn
2006   Prof. Dr. Andrew Z. Fire, Stanford                       2015   Prof. Dr. Raja Atreya, Erlangen
       Prof. Dr. Craig C. Mello, Worcester                      2016   Dr. Claus-Dieter Kuhn, Bayreuth
2007   Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath, Rehovot                            2017   Dr. Volker Busskamp, Dresden
       Prof. Dr. Harry Noller, Santa Cruz                       2018   Prof. Dr. Tim J. Schulz, Potsdam
2008   Prof. Dr. Tim R. Mosmann, Ph.D., Rochester               2019   Dr. Dorothee Dormann, München
2009   Prof. Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, San Francisco          2020   Dr. Judith Reichmann, Heidelberg
       Prof. Dr. Carol Greider, Baltimore                       2021   Prof. Dr. Elvira Mass, Bonn
2010   Prof. Dr. Charles Dinarello, Denver
2011   Prof. Dr. Cesare Montecucco, Padua
2012   Prof. Dr. Peter Walter, San Francisco
2013   Prof. Dr. Mary-Claire King, Seattle

                         12                                                             13
Published by
Office of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation
Paul Ehrlich-Stiftung
c/o Vereinigung von Freunden und
Förderern der Goethe-Universität
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1
60629 Frankfurt am Main
E-Mail: freunde@vff.uni-frankfurt.de
www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de

© March 2021

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Photos Part 1
Cover, pp. 6–10, 11, 13 and 15:
Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen
p. 12: Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt am Main
p. 16 top: City of Frankfurt am Main
pp. 16 and 17: Uwe Dettmar,
Frankfurt am Main

Photos Part 2
Members of the Scientific Council: private
Prize Winners: Uwe Dettmar,
German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg,
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
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