Research Prize

UEG Research Prize 2021

UEG awards € 100,000 each year for excellence in basic science, translational or clinical research.

With this prize we support a future scientific research project from early stage to successful conclusion. The prize addresses well-established researchers at the height of their active career, whose science has had or will have a crucial impact on digestive health.

Watch the recording of the project presentation and award ceremony for this year’s awardee Dirk Haller at UEG Week Virtual 2021!

Application for Research Prize 2022 will open at the end of 2021.

Research Prize Awardee 2019 - Silvio Danese

Dirk Haller wins UEG Research Prize 2021

Dirk Haller is awarded the distinguished UEG Research Prize 2021 for his outstanding project “Repurposing mitochondria-protective targets for adjuvant IBD therapy”.

The exciting and novel vision of his proposal is to repurpose mitochondria-protective therapeutics to develop proof-of-concept for novel adjuvant strategies in IBD. In the outlined research project, he aims to define the effect of mitochondria-protective molecules in IBD patient derived organoids and mouse models. For this purpose, he and his team apply different classes of drugs already applied for the treatment of mitochondrial diseases and repurpose their activities to enhance regenerative tissue responses after inflammation-related injury of the intestinal epithelium.

Over the past 20 years, Prof. Haller and his team pioneered the idea that the epithelium actively integrates signals from the cellular and metabolic environment of the gut microbiome in order to sustain tissue homeostasis and digestive health. He established a comprehensive and internationally visible biomedical research program dedicated to better understand the role of microbiome-host interactions in initiating and regulating inflammatory disorders of the digestive tract.

Dirk Haller is the director of the ZIEL - Institute for Food & Health, Technical University of Munich/Germany and Full Professor at the Technical University of Munich/Germany in Nutrition and Immunology (Chair).

Target group

Active, well-established senior researchers at the height of their active career, whose science has had or will have a crucial impact on digestive health.
Applicants should be leading a substantial research group and their work should be conducted predominantly in Europe.
The work should have been supported by substantial peer reviewed grants through internationally recognised research councils, research charities or industrial partners.
Applicants must have been mentioned at least once as (co-)author of an abstract submitted to UEG Week - or have been awarded as Rising Stars - in the past 3 years (2018, 2019, and/or 2020).
Applicants must commit to deliver the agreed research within the stipulated time frame.
Applications from departments that received a Research Prize in the previous 5 years (2016-2020) will not be accepted.
The prize will be awarded to the same recipient only once.

Past awardees

Past awardees

2020: Stefan Schreiber, Kiel University, Germany
Research Project: “Therapeutic mechanisms of controlled-ileocolonic-release nicotinamide (CICR-NAM) in IBD”
Watch presentation given at UEG Week Virtual 2020

2019: Silvio Danese, Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan
Research Project: "The gut virome as a trigger for IBD: from metagenomics to pathogenesis”
Watch his presentation given at UEG Week 2019

2018: Cisca Wijmenga, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), The Netherlands
Research Project: "A celiac mucosal barrier-on-chip model to investigate its role in initiation of celiac disease”
Watch the interview with Cisca Wijmenga.
Read more about Cisca Wijmenga and women in UEG in the UEG Journal.

2017: Jesper Lagergren, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden
Research Project: “The aetiology, prevention and treatment of oesophageal cancer”
Watch the interview with Jesper Lagergren.

2016: Ernst J. Kuipers, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Research Project: “Hidden in plain sight: the opportunities for targeted surveillance and intervention for early gastric neoplasia”

2015: Jan Tack,University of Leuven, Belgium
Research Project: “Role of nutrients and tastants in determining the gastric accommodation (GA) reflex and the control of meal volume tolerance in health and disease"

2014: Rebecca Fitzgerald, Medical Research Council, Cancer Cell Unit, and Honorary Consultant in Gastroenterology at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge (UK), NIHR Research Professor
Research Project: "Combination of quantifiable genomic assays with a patient friendly non-endoscopic cell retrieval device called Cytosponge™ for management of patients with Barrett’s oesophagus"

2013: Ian Tomlinson, Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford, United Kingdom
Research Project: "The roles of bone morphogenetic protein pathway genes in the normal and neoplastic intestines"

2012: Ludvig M. Sollid, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, Norway
Research Project: “Antibody Response in Coeliac Disease”

2011: Pierre-Alain Clavien, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland
Research Project: “Liver regeneration – extending the potential of the liver after major surgery”

2010: Hans Clevers, Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Research Project: “Develop techniques for ex vivo expansion and transplantation of stem cells from the human intestinal tract"

2009: Jean Frédéric Colombel, Hopital Claude Huriez, Lille,France
Research Project:"ORIGIN: Observing Relatives, Immunity, Genetics and the mIcrobiome before the onset of Crohn’s disease"

2008: Markus Neurath, University of Mainz, Germany
Research Project:"Molecular imaging of the intestinal immune system in IBD"

Contact

Research Policy Management

Mathilde Ollivier

M: +43 699 1997 16 34
T: +43 1 997 16 39

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