Eppendorf Present Georg Winter with the 2019 Young European Investigators Award

The 2019 Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators was awarded to Austria for the 2nd time in the history of this highly prestigious event. The independent Eppendorf Award Jury, chaired by Professor Reinhard Jahn, selected Dr Georg Winter, Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, as the 24th winner of the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators.

The Award ceremony fittingly took place at the spectacular and dynamic EMBL Advanced Training Centre at the Heidelberg Campus, Germany, on 27 June 2019. The laudatio honouring Georg Winter’s achievements was held by Award Jury Chairman Professor Reinhard Jahn of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen.

Georg Winter, born 1985, receives the €20,000 prize for his pioneering work developing a method for targeting specific proteins for degradation using heterobifunctional chemical compounds to specifically recruit ubiquitin E3 ligases to the intended protein target for destruction. 

The Jury: “This powerful system enables targeting of previously undruggable targets and shows promise both in cells and in vivo in model systems as an emerging therapy.” Georg Winter’s work has led to a fury of excitement across pharmaceutical companies and has resulted in several patents; it holds promise to yield novel therapies for cancer and other diseases of unmet need.

Georg Winter: “I felt incredibly honoured and humbled when I learned that I will be awarded with the 2019 Eppendorf Award. This prize recognises our work in innovating a generalisable solution to targeted protein degradation in vivo. We are pursuing this new therapeutic paradigm towards our ultimate goal of degrading disease-relevant proteins that are thus far deemed ‘undruggable’.

“My contribution to this exciting field would not have been possible without groundbreaking work from esteemed peers, the amazing support from mentors, and close and fruitful collaborations with colleagues in the lab.”

With the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators, which was established in 1995, Eppendorf AG honours outstanding work in biomedical research and supports young scientists in Europe up to the age of 35. The Eppendorf Award is presented in partnership with the scientific journal Nature.

The Award winner is selected by an independent committee composed of Professor Reinhard Jahn (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany), Professor Dieter Häussinger (Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectiology, Düsseldorf, Germany), Professor Maria Leptin (EMBO, Heidelberg, Germany), Professor Martin J. Lohse (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin, Germany), and Professor Laura Machesky (Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Glasgow, UK).

On the morning after the Award ceremony, Eppendorf staff treated press members and Georg Winter to a fascinating guided tour of Heidelberg Castle. With over 800 years of history, this prominent landmark is one of the most popular ruins in Germany, and the tour was a perfect way to round off a splendid event.

More information regarding entry details, judging procedures and past winners: www.eppendorf.com/award