Harald zur Hausen Receives Raymond Bourgine Award
Professor Dr. med. Dr. h.c. mult. Harald zur Hausen, virologist and former Chairman of the Management Board of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), will receive the 13th Raymond Bourgine Award. The jurors have chosen zur Hausen as a recipient to recognize his outstanding contributions to oncology.
Born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, zur Hausen studied medicine in Bonn, Hamburg and Duesseldorf. After graduating in December 1960 he devoted himself to science. As a young researcher, he investigated the links between viral infections and the development of specific types of cancer in humans. In 1970 he made his scientific breakthrough when he detected the Epstein-Barr virus in tissue samples of two human tumors, Burkitt’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Since the seventies, zur Hausen has focused his research on papillomaviruses. He was the first to discover that individual types of these viruses, which were also first isolated in his working group, can cause cervical cancer. This discovery paved the way for novel prevention measures for this type of cancer. Thus, a vaccine against papillomaviruses will probably become available in 2006.
From 1983 until his retirement in March 2003, zur Hausen was Chairman of the DKFZ Management Board. It is mainly his merit that the DKFZ today ranges among the world’s leading cancer research institutes.
In the course of his scientific career, zur Hausen was presented numerous high-ranking awards including the Robert Koch Award, the Charles S. Mott Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the German Cancer Award, the Paul Ehrlich Prize, the Ludwig Darmstaedter Award and the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine. The virologist received honorary doctorates in six countries and is a member of numerous national and international specialist associations. In April 2004 he was awarded the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Raymond Bourgine Award was named in honor of a French journalist and politician who died of cancer in 1990. It is awarded annually to recognize excellent achievements in cancer research.
The award ceremony will take place on February 1st at the occasion of the 17th International Congress on Anti-Cancer Treatment in Paris (http://www.icact.com/).
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
