Klaus Rajewsky (born 12 November 1936 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German
immunologist, renowned for his work on
B cells.
He studied medicine in Frankfurt,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
and at the
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. In 1964 he started working at the Institute of
Genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
in the
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...
, where he became professor for genetics. He researched
Hodgkin's disease and the role of B cells within the
immune system
The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splint ...
. He also developed conditional
knockout mice based on
Cre-Lox recombination.
He is one of the founding fathers of the
German society for immunology (1967).
Since 1994 he has been a member of the
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
.
From 1995 to 2001 he was head of the
Monterotondo station of the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 27 member states, two prospect states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in 1974 and ...
near
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
In 1996 he was awarded the
Robert Koch Prize
The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...
(shared with
Fritz Melchers).
In 1998 he founded
Artemis Pharmaceuticals, together with
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
Christiane (Janni) Nüsslein-Volhard (; born 20 October 1942) is a German developmental biologist and a 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate. She is the only woman from Germany to have received a Nobel Prize in the sciences.
NÃ ...
and
Peter Stadler.
In 2001 he started working at the Center for Blood Research at
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, where an additional focus of his work concerns
RNAi
RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by ...
, especially
microRNAs
MicroRNA (miRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21 to 23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals and some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. miR ...
, in conjunction with immune development and control. Since start of 2012 he works at
MDC Berlin.
Klaus Rajewsky is a son of the noted biophysicist
Boris Rajewsky, and the father of the renowned systems biologist
Nikolaus Rajewsky.
Awards
* 1977
Avery-Landsteiner Prize of the
German society for immunology
* 1994
Behring Kitasato Prize from the
Hoechst Japan
* 1996
Robert Koch Prize
The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...
, together with
Fritz Melchers
* 1997
Körber European Science Prize, together with Pawel Kisielow and
Harald von Boehmer
* 2001
Deutscher Krebshilfepreis, together with
Martin-Leo Hansmann and
Ralf Küppers
* 2004
Honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of the
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
* 2005
Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research, together with
Mariano Barbacid
Mariano Barbacid Montalbán (born 4 October 1949 in Madrid) is a Spanish molecular biochemist who discovered the first oncogene HRAS.
Academic career
He completed his higher education in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he studied ...
* 2007
Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology
The Novartis Prizes for Immunology were established in 1990 by Sandoz to honour outstanding research in immunology, and expanded to their current form in 1992. Prizes for basic and clinical immunology are awarded every 3 years. A special prize was ...
, together with
Frederick Alt and
* 2008
Ernst Schering Prize
* 2009
Max Delbrück Medal
The Max Delbrück Medal has been awarded annually from 1992 to 2013 by the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (German: ''Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin'' or MDC). Named after the German biophysicist Max Delbrück, it is pr ...
* 2009
William B. Coley Award
The William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology is presented annually by the Cancer Research Institute, to scientists who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of basic and tumor immunology and whose w ...
for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology, together with
Frederick Alt
* 2010
Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine
The Ernst Jung Prize is a prize awarded annually for excellence in biomedical sciences. The Ernst Jung Foundation, funded by Hamburg merchant Ernst Jung in 1967, has awarded the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, now €300,000, since 1976, and the lif ...
* 2022
Mendel Medal by the
Masaryk University
Masaryk University (MU) ( cs, Masarykova univerzita; la, Universitas Masarykiana Brunensis) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the se ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajewsky, Klaus
1936 births
Living people
German immunologists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences