In 2019, the Hamburg life science company is presenting its highly prestigious research prize for the 24th time. The independent Eppendorf Award Jury chaired by Prof. 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 2019 winner of the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators. 

The Award ceremony took place at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, on June 27, 2019. The laudatio honoring Georg Winter’s achievements was held by Award Jury Chairman Prof. 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 honored and humbled when I learned that I will be awarded with the 2019 Eppendorf Award. This price recognizes our work in innovating a generalizable 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 honors 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 Prof. Reinhard Jahn (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany), Prof. Dieter Häussinger (Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectiology, Düsseldorf, Germany), Prof. Maria Leptin (EMBO, Heidelberg, Germany), Prof. Martin J. Lohse (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin, Germany), and Prof. Laura Machesky (Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Glasgow, UK).