The 2023/24 Meyenburg Prize, endowed with 50,000 euros, goes to Michel Sadelain from Columbia University, New York. The doctor and immunologist is considered one of the fathers of CAR-T cell therapy. Today, this cellular immunotherapy can be used to effectively treat certain blood cancers, even at an advanced stage. The Meyenburg Prize will be awarded on Wednesday, April 2, at a symposium at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).

In 2017, the US FDA granted approval for the first time for a completely new treatment for blood cancer in children for whom chemotherapy could no longer do anything: They received immunotherapy with their own genetically modified T cells, so-called CAR T cells. In most patients, the disease responded very well to treatment – and for many, the therapeutic success was permanent, over many years. There is now an increasing number of CAR-T cell therapies for the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma when standard therapy fails. Even certain autoimmune diseases have been successfully alleviated.

One of the “fathers” of CAR-T cell therapies is the physician and immunologist Michel Sadelain, who now conducts research at Columbia University in New York. “Michel Sadelain has played a significant role in ensuring that patients with cancers of the blood, even in advanced stages of the disease, can have hope of a cure,” says Stefan Fröhling, Chairman of the Meyenburg Foundation and Managing Director of the NCT Heidelberg. “The Meyenburg Prize 2023 also particularly recognizes Sadelain’s consistent focus on quickly transferring the results of his research into clinical application.”

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Second tumor as a side effect: Paul-Ehrlich-Institut takes a close look at CAR-T cell therapies – MedLabPortal

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