The rheumatologist and immunologist Prof. Dr. Georg Schett receives one of the ten Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizes for the coming year. This was announced by the German Research Foundation, which awards the most important German research funding prize. The prize is endowed with 2.5 million euros. In a press release, the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) explains: “Anyone who conducts research in the field of inflammatory diseases cannot ignore Professor Schett.”
Successful therapy in autoimmune diseases
The doctor primarily researches the question of how autoimmune diseases develop and why they become chronic. He has already provided groundbreaking insights to understand the interaction between inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
This year he succeeded in carrying out the world’s first therapy for an autoimmune disease using the body’s own gene-modified immune cells. The therapy worked like a kind of “reset button” and led to the complete resolution of the disease. According to the university, this results in completely new approaches to sustainably heal severe forms of autoimmune diseases.
Highly connected innovator
FAU President Joachim Hornegger congratulated the awardee on his outstanding success: “Prof. Dr. Georg Schett is an excellent researcher who advances his field with his achievements and ensures that scientific findings are transferred to everyday clinical practice.” In addition, Schett has built up a strong international research network that has attracted numerous young researchers to FAU.
Interdisciplinary and data-based approach
Prof. Georg Schett was born in 1969, studied and did his doctorate at the University of Innsbruck and has been the director of Medical Clinic 3 (rheumatology and immunology) at the University Hospital Erlangen since 2006. As the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina explains, Schett’s research focuses on translation, the combination of human and experimental data. The physician pursues a highly interdisciplinary approach that connects the various areas involved in immunomedicine and inflammation research.
Second Leibniz Prize winner in a row from Erlangen
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is considered the most important research prize in Germany, and Schett can use the prize money for his further research. Last year, the laser physicist Prof. Dr. Peter Hommelhoff, who also researches at FAU, was awarded the Leibniz Prize.
Award ceremony on December 15th
The prize has been awarded to ten researchers every year since 1986. In 2023, in addition to Schett, the Tübingen bioengineer Largus Angenent, the Würzburg biochemist Claudia Höbartner, the Stuttgart architectural scientist Achim Menges, the director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Sarah Ellen O’Connor, the Heidelberg child cancer researcher Stefan Pfister, the Jenaer sociologist Hartmut Rosa, the Bonn mathematician Catharina Stroppel, the Munich biologist and medical IT specialist Fabian Theis and the Berlin literary scholar Anita Traninger. The award ceremony will take place on March 15, 2023 in Berlin.
