Le «Prix Otto Naegeli pour la recherche médicale» est l’une des distinctions biomédicales les plus prestigieuses de Suisse et est décerné tous les deux ans à des chercheurs en Suisse.
En raison de la pandémie de COVID-19, la remise du prix pour le lauréat 2020 a dû être reportée. C’est pourquoi les prix 2020 et 2022 seront remis lors d’une cérémonie commune le 14 juin 2022 au Biozentrum de l’Université de Bâle.
Le «Prix Otto Naegeli» 2020 a été décerné au Prof. Christian Lüscher du Département des neurosciences fondamentales de la Faculté de médecine de l’Université de Genève, Suisse. Christian Lüscher a apporté des contributions scientifiques exceptionnelles dans le domaine de la recherche sur les addictions et a ainsi jeté les bases de nouvelles approches thérapeutiques dans le traitement des addictions.
Les motivations du Conseil scientifique peuvent être lues dans la laudatio officielle de l’ancienne lauréate, le Prof. Silvia Arber:
«Christian Lüscher has made outstanding scientific contributions to the field of addiction research. His work led to a deep understanding of the cellular and neuronal circuit mechanisms driving addiction. Christian Lüscher found that specific synapses change their strength through mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, paralleling the behavioral manifestations of addiction. This insight allowed him to design clever interventions to revert these changes in animal models. In order to enable possible interventions in patients with addiction in the future, Christian Lüscher developed deep brain stimulation protocols in animal models. These are successful in reverting addiction, with high potential for application in patients with severe forms of addiction. These biomedically highly relevant findings have appeared in a series of papers in scientific journals of highest international impact, leaving no doubt that Christian Lüscher is a world leader in the field of addiction research. Importantly, Christian Lüscher’s contributions do not only provide deep and fundamental insight into the process of addiction, but also provide avenues to alleviate and possibly cure various forms of addiction in patients in the future. The rigorous and persistent pursuit of the critical biological mechanisms underlying addiction, with the declared goal of applying the knowledge to treat patients, is truly exceptional.»
Le «Prix Otto Naegeli» 2022 a été décerné au Dr Nicolas H. Thomä de l’Institut Friedrich Miescher pour la recherche biomédicale, Bâle, Suisse. Grâce à ses travaux de recherche, Nicolas Thomä a acquis des connaissances fondamentales sur la structure et le fonctionnement de la dégradation protéique cellulaire par le système de l’ubiquitine, ouvrant ainsi de toutes nouvelles possibilités d’utilisation thérapeutique de ce système.
Les motivations du Conseil scientifique peuvent être lues dans la laudatio officielle de l’ancienne lauréate, le Prof. Susan M. Gasser:
«Dr Nicolas H. Thomä has made seminal contributions to our understanding of the regulation and mode of action of ubiquitin ligases by determining the structures of large multicomponent complexes with ground-breaking cryo-electron microscopy techniques. He defined the structure of complexes that control the activity of large Cullin-based E3 ligases, and the structure of the ligase itself, which targets proteins within the cell for degradation. He then described how the specificity of the ligase can be reprogramed with the help of small molecules, allowing endogenous cellular machinery to be recruited to destroy proteins that are over-expressed or mutated in disease. Dr Thomä’s work is a prime example how cutting-edge structure biology can have direct and major therapeutic implications on diseases ranging from Alzheimers and infectious disease, to cancer.
The Thomä laboratory has shown on an atomic level how chemical compounds can function as molecular glues, connecting the adaptor domain of the Cul4 E3 ligase complex to a neo-substrate, committing the bound protein to degradation. He showed that previously identified drugs can be repurposed to help treat multiple myeloma and other blood cancers, through the targeted degradation of specific zinc-finger transcription factors. Such studies have profound implications for the modulation of transcriptional regulators that have long been considered undruggable, and yet which lie at the heart of oncogenic transformation. Dr Thomä continues to extend this approach to other classes of proteins, based on fundamental insights into the structure, function and biology of E3 enzymes.
The award of the Otto Naegeli Prize is for work that revealed the structural basis of how ubiquitin ligases, which control more than a third of total protein degradation in mammalian cells, are controlled and can be targeted to trigger the degradation of specific proteins in living cells. He has repeatedly delivered ground-breaking insights through his mastery of cryo-electron microscopy and human biology, to harness the cell’s own machinery to regulate genome stability, transcription, and DNA repair. He is a prime example of how cutting-edge structure biology provides not only molecular insights, but drives innovation in biomedical application.»
Le «Prix Otto Naegeli» a été créé en 1960 en mémoire du Professeur Otto Naegeli, éminent scientifique et professeur de médecine interne à l’Université de Zurich, décédé en 1938 (https://otto-naegeli-preis.ch).
Le «Prix Otto Naegeli» a pour but de promouvoir et de reconnaître l’excellence de la recherche médicale (recherche biomédicale fondamentale et recherche clinique) et est décerné tous les deux ans à des chercheurs en Suisse. Le montant du prix est actuellement de 200 000 CHF.
Disclosure statement
Les auteurs ont déclaré ne pas avoir de conflits d’intérêts potentiels.
Correspondance
Prof. Dr méd. Markus H. Heim Departement Biomedizin Universität Basel Hebelstrasse 20 CH-4031 Basel markus.heim[at]unibas.ch
