Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager (born 29 May 1958) is a German virologist who has been researching

hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...

since 1989. He is a professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

Early life

Bartenschlager grew up in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

. After high school, he worked as a policemen for four years before starting his undergraduate in biology in 1981 at

. He conduced his thesis work with Heinz Schaller at the ZMBH in Heidelberg on the structure and functional role of the P-protein in Hepatitis B viruses. After graduating in 1990, he continued working as a postdoc at Heidelberg University until joining Hoffmann-La Roche in 1991, where he began working on Hepatitis C.

Other activities

Robert Koch Institute The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is a German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention. It is located in Berlin and Wernigerode. As an upper federal agency, it is subordinate to the Federa ...

(RKI), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board * Wilhelm Sander Foundation, Member of the Scientific Advisory Board

Recognition

Bartenschlager was a recipient of the 2016

Lasker Award The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, which was ...

for Clinical Research for discoveries related to

hepatitis C virus The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small (55–65 nm in size), enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family ''Flaviviridae''. The hepatitis C virus is the cause of hepatitis C and some cancers such as liver cancer ( hepato ...

, jointly with

Charles M. Rice Charles Moen Rice (born August 25, 1952) is an American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate whose main area of research is the Hepatitis C virus. He is a professor of virology at the Rockefeller University in New York City and an adjunct profess ...

and Michael J. Sofia. Bartenschlager received in 2021 the

Beijerinck Virology Prize The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (''M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs'') is a prize in virology awarded every two years by the ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen'' (KNAW). The prize consists of a medal and a monetary award of €3 ...

.(in German)

References

1958 births Living people German virologists Academic staff of Heidelberg University Recipients of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award {{Germany-biologist-stub