Zurich/Hamburg – Chemist and microbiologist Jörn Piel from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Elena Conti, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, will be honored with this year’s Jung Prize for Medicine. This is one of the most highly endowed awards in Europe.
(CONNECT) Jörn Piel, Professor of Bacterial Natural Products at the ETH Institute of Microbiology, has been awarded the Jung Prize for Medicine. This prestigious honor is awarded by the Hamburg Jung Foundation for Science and Research for outstanding scientific achievements that have the potential to change diagnostics and therapy in the long term.
With prize money of 300,000 euros, the Jung Prize is one of the most prestigious and highly endowed awards in Europe, the ETH said in a statement. Piel shares it with the Director of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Elena Conti. "I would never have dreamed that I would receive this award," said Piel, who has been researching at ETH Zurich since 2013. He was previously a professor of chemistry at the University of Bonn.
Piel and his team are searching for non-cultivated bacteria that produce novel and medically applicable active substances. This is because "bacteria contain many undiscovered natural substances that have an antibiotic effect and can therefore help us to overcome the antibiotic crisis," explains the researcher. He is particularly interested in exotic species that have never been studied before: "The key moment was when we actually found the first bacterium," says Piel in an ETH video. "And then we looked into the genome: it was full of biosynthesis genes. In terms of the genome, it was comparable to industrial producers of drug candidates. That was an incredible experience."
The team is currently working on a substance "previously only known from sea sponges", explains Piel. This is "one of the most active and promising substances" ever studied at the National Cancer Institute, the most important authority for biomedical research in the USA. Because it cannot be obtained sustainably from nature, the team looked for an alternative production source and found it, according to Piel. "We hope," says the researcher, "that we can take this further." He hopes that the prize will provide "impetus to launch new projects for which it is still too early to submit research proposals, i.e. pioneering projects". ce/mm
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