The Cloëtta Prize

Cloëtta Prize

The Prof. Dr. Max Cloëtta Foundation awards an annual prize. It serves to honor Swiss and foreign personalities who have rendered outstanding services to specific areas of medical research.

The prize is usually awarded in November. The Foundation Board is responsible for the awarding of the prize and, if necessary, seeks the opinion of independent experts.

The next price ceremony will take place on Friday, 29 November 2024.

Since 1974, the Golden Book of the Foundation has honored the prize winners with a calligraphed page bearing their original signatures. Please take a look at some of the pages: The Golden Book

Cloëtta Prize 2023 awarded to researchers from Basel and Zurich
The Prof. Dr. Max Cloëtta Foundation awarded the 2023 Cloëtta Prize to two prestigious scientists. Prof. Dr. Christoph Hess, Chief Physician at the University Hospital Basel and Research Group Leader at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel and the University of Cambridge (UK) and Sebastian Jessberger, Professor of Neuroscience and Director at the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich each received the scientific prize remunerated with 50,000 Swiss francs.

Christoph Hess is an internationally outstanding leader and a change maker in the field of immunology. The focus of his research is immunometabolism, i.e. the interplay between immunological function and metabolic processes. Specifically, he studies the metabolic basis of translational aspects of of lymphocyte function. The goal of his work is to understand patients suffering from immunometabolic disorders. His studies have led to important insights in the field of immune metabolism and have the potential to pave the way for new therapeutic approaches. 

It is the enthusiastic linkage of insights from his basic research with clinical human immunology and patient care that makes his research and resulting contributions unique.

Sebastian Jessberger is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of lifelong neural cell formation (neurogenesis). His group uses an inter-disciplinary approach to study the molecular and cellular basis of neural stem cell biology in the developing and adult brain. His major work includes identifying mechanisms underlying asymmetric stem cell division that contribute to aging, revealing the dynamics of adult neurogenesis using advanced in vivo long-term microscopy, and the role of lipid metabolism in regulating stem cell activity. All of these are ground-breaking discoveries that have had a major impact on the field of research. Currently, his laboratory is using state-of-the-art imaging and genome-based approaches as well as cellular models of human disease using pluripotent stem cells with the goal of improving the understanding of brain stem cell behavior in health and disease.

Professor Jessberger holds a key role in neuroscience due to his research accomplishments, conference organization, broad collaborations, and active participation in discourses.

Cloëtta Prize​ winners:

2023

Prof. Dr. Christoph Hess

University Hospital Basel, University of Basel & University of Cambridge

Metabolic regulation of T cell function

Prof. Sebastian Jessberger

University of Zurich

New neurons for old brains: mechanisms underlying lifelong neurogenesis

2022

Prof. Dr. Annette Oxenius

ETH Zurich

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Former winners

1997

Dr. Gerard Waeber
Professor Dr. Denis Duboule

1996

Dr. Lukas C. Kühn
Professor Dr. Peter Sonderegger

1995

Professor Dr. Jürg Reichen
Dr. George Thomas jr.

1994

Professor Dr. rer. nat. Hans Rudolf Brenner
Daniel Pablo Lew, Professeur ordinaire de médecine

1993

Dr. Paolo Meda
Professor Dr. Adriano Fontana

1992

Professor Dr. Michel Aguet

1991

PD Dr. Peter J. Meier-Abt
PD Dr. Jacques Philippe

1990

Professor Dr. Martin E. Schwab
Professor Dr. Denis Monard

1989

Professor Dr. Heini Murer
Dr. Hugh Robson MacDonald

1988

Professor Dr. Jean-Dominique Vassalli
PD Dr. Hans Hengartner

1987

Professor Dr. Jacques Louis
Professor Dr. Joachim H. Seelig

1986

Professor Dr. Ueli Schibler
Professor Dr. Walter Schaffner

1985

Professor Dr. Hans Thoenen
Dr. Roberto Montesano

1984

Frau Professor Dr. Heidi Diggelmann
Professor Dr. Jean-François Borel

1983

Professor Dr. Peter Böhlen
PD Dr. Claes B. Wollheim

1982

PD Dr. Jürgen Zapf
PD Dr Jean-Michel Dayer

1981

Professor Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel
Professor Dr. Peter A. Cerutti

1980

Professor Dr. Edward W. Flückiger
PD Dr. Albert Burger

1979

Professor Dr. Theodor Koller
Professor Dr. Jean-Pierre Kraehenbuehl

1978

Dr. Susumu Tonegawa

1977

Professor Dr. Franz Oesch

1976

Dr. Rui C. de Sousa

1975

Dr. med. Hans Bürgi

1974

Dr. med. Urs A. Meyer