The Foundation awards every year a Prize to honour personalities in Switzerland and abroad who have distinguished themselves in a particular way in certain fields of medical research.
As a rule the Prize is awarded between September 1 and December 31 of every year. The Board of Foundation is responsible for the adjudication; if necessary, it may consult the opinion of independent experts.
The next price ceremony will take place on Friday, 25 November 2022.
Since 1974, the Golden Book of the Foundation has honoured the prize winners with a page bearing their original signatures. Here we show examples of the pages of the first two prize winners and two more recent prize winners: The Golden Book
Cloëtta Prize 2021 awarded to researchers from Zurich and Lausanne
The Professor Dr Max Cloëtta Foundation awarded the 2021 Cloëtta Prize again to two prestigious scientists. Professor Anne Müller, Professor at the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research at the University of Zurich and Professor Bart Deplancke, Professor at the School of Life Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) each received the scientific prize remunerated with 50,000 Swiss francs.
Anne Müller, Professor at the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research at the University of Zurich, is a microbiologist by training and renowned Helicobacter pylori expert. Colonization of the human stomach by the bacterium H. pylori is one of the most common chronic bacterial infections. In addition to ulcers, H. pylori infection can also cause gastric cancer. Anne Müller’s work on the carcinogenic and genotoxic properties of H. pylori, and on the role of Th1-driven immunopathology in gastric carcinogenesis has contributed to our understanding of this lethal human malignancy. In her more recent work, Anne Müller has shown that H. pylori infection can under certain circumstances benefit the infected host as a protective factor against extra-gastric pathologies, in particular allergic asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease. Worldwide, one in two people is infected with H. pylori. A deeper understanding of the bacterium promises to lead to new approaches in treatment and prophylaxis.
Bart Deplancke, Professor at the School of Life Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) investigates in his research how the enormous diversity of cells and phenotypes (including disease susceptibility) can arise from genetic blueprints. Due to being at the forefront of implementing and developing state-of-the-art approaches in microfluidics, single cells, and bioinformatics, his group’s work has led to novel and important biological insights into the molecular regulatory mechanisms that implement the readout of genetic information. These include the discovery that chromatin is organized into highly coordinated modules (“variable chromatin modules”), introducing a pioneering concept that may significantly enhance our understanding of how regulatory genetic variation shapes organismal diversity. In addition, his laboratory focuses on addressing questions pertaining to the origin, diversity and function of stromal cells in adipose tissue, resulting in the identification of a novel type which changes our view on how adipose tissue development and homeostasis may be regulated.
The videos of the prize ceremony can be viewed here:
– Welcome message by Prof. Frank Rühli, Dean of the Medical Faculty
– Presentation of Prof. Bart Deplancke with laudation by Prof. Didier Trono
– Presentation of Prof. Anne Müller with laudation by Prof. Maries van den Broek
Pictures of the award ceremony 2021:
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- Maries van den Broek giving her laudatio
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- Anne Müller with her certificate
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- Bart Deplancke with his Cloëtta gold medal
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- from left to right: Didier Trono, Anne Müller, Bart Deplancke, Maries van den Broek, Fritjof Helmchen
Cloëtta prize winners:
