Matthias Tschöp receives the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine 2021
Award for obesity and diabetes research
The Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine is awarded to researchers who have contributed considerably to progress in human medicine with their projects and are also expected to do so in future. Matthias Tschöp started his research more than 20 years ago to develop improved therapeutic compounds against the metabolic diseases obesity and diabetes, which reached pandemic dimensions all over the world. Early in his career, he made a number of groundbreaking discoveries on the molecular communication between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain. These findings enabled him to develop novel drug candidates, including a distinct class of therapeutics called hormone polyagonists. Several such polyagonists are now successfully in phase II and III clinical trials and are considered one of the most promising approaches currently available to combat the common complex diseases obesity and type 2 diabetes.
“The Jung Foundation for Science and Research is known for its commitment to the advancement of human medicine on both a national and international level. My own journey has led me from medicine to science, from Germany into the world, and from the academic landscape to biotech and pharma and back again, ultimately learning that it is often at the intersections between these worlds where the transformative potential can be found,” says Tschöp.
