TSIS 2010 Keynote Lecture
‘Evolutionary Origins of Innate Immunity’
Prof. Dr. Jules A. Hoffmann, Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg, France
Prof. Dr. Jules A. Hoffmann is a Distinguished Class Research Director and Member of the Board of Administrators at the National Committee of Scientific Research (CNRS) and since 2007 President of the French National Academy of Sciences.
He was born in Luxembourg, where he received his primary and secondary education until he moved to Strasbourg University to study Zoology, General Biology and Chemistry. He received his Ph.D. at this University, working on the origins and roles of blood cells in the grasshopper Locusta migratoria under the supervision of Prs. P. Joly and A. Porte. After a postdoctoral year at Marburg University where he worked with Prs. P. Karlson and J. Koolman, Dr. Hoffmann returned to Strasbourg to take up biochemical studies on insect hormones, particularly on the steroid hormone ecdysone. In 1978, upon retirement of Pr. Joly, Dr. Hoffmann became director of the laboratory and the interests of the group gradually moved to insect immunity. In 1994, Dr. Hoffmann was appointed director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of the French National Research Agency CNRS. This institute, to which Dr. Hoffmann and his group moved from their previous location, the Institute of Zoology and General Biology, is located on the central campus of the University of Strasbourg (Universitè Louis Pasteur).
Since that period, the studies of Dr. Hoffmann and his numerous co-workers, focused primarily on the molecular and cellular aspects of the innate immune response of Drosophila, with a recent extension to the malaria vector insect Anopheles.
Dr. Jules A. Hoffmann has served on numerous French and International Committees, and is a Member of several Academies and since 2006 Doctor honoris causa of the Technical University (TU) Munich.
PEOPLE at TSIS 2010
Professor Dr. Charles A. Dinarello, University of Colorado Denver, USA
Prof. Dr. Charles A. Dinarello - Member of the Scientific Committee of TSIS 2010 - will be awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (“the 2010 Ehrlich Prize”) for his outstanding contributions to research in the field of cytokines. The 2010 Ehrlich Prize will be presented on Paul Ehrlich's birthday, March 14, 2010, in the Frankfurt Paulskirche.
The Ehrlich Prize is among the most prestigious international prizes awarded in the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of medicine. The prize is awarded to scientists in recognition of their special achievements in Paul Ehrlich's field of research, especially immunology, cancer research, haematology, microbiology and chemotherapy. Paul Ehrlich won a Nobel Prize in medicine in 1908 for his discovery of antibodies to treat diseases.
Dr. Dinarello is considered a founding father of cytokine biology. Earlier this year, Dr. Dinarello was jointly awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his work in cytokine research. The $500,000 Albany Prize is the United States' largest prize in medicine. On May 13, 2009, Dr. Dinarello was jointly awarded the $500,000 Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, presented to him by the King of Sweden. Dr. Dinarello donated his prize money to the Interleukin Foundation, which Dr. Dinarello started to help fund biomedical research.
Dr. Dinarello is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Denver. He received his medical degree from Yale University and his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. From 1974-1977 he was senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. After being Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and a staff physician at the New England Medical Center Hospital in Boston, he moved to the University of Colorado Denver - School of Medicine in 1996.
Dr. Dinarello serves on the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as well as several scientific journals. He has published over 600 original research articles on cytokines, particularly interleukin-1 and TNF. He has served on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Alliance for Lupus Research, was Vice President of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (1989–1990) and President of the International Cytokine Society (1995–1996).
In 1993, he was awarded Germany’s Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine for his contributions to the study of infectious diseases and cytokines. He donated the entire prize money to universities and research institutes in the United States and Israel, and established the Sheldon M. Wolff Professorship at Tufts University to honor his late mentor. Dr. Dinarello received the Ludwig Heilmeyer Gold Medal of the Society for Internal Medicine, the International Chirone Prize from the Italian National Academy of Medicine, the Carol Nachman Prize in Rheumatology, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashdid al Maktoum Award (United Arab Emirates) and the Beering Award (USA).
