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Kaan Boztug awarded ÖAW Mannagetta Prize for Medicine

Award for expert in rare diseases – Funding awards for Elisabeth Salzer and Bernd Boidol
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(Vienna, 22 March 2019) The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) has awarded the Johann Wilhelm Ritter von Mannagetta Prize for Medicine to Kaan Boztug, expert in rare congenital haematopoietic and immune diseases from MedUni Vienna's Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, for his outstanding achievements in the study of congenital immune system disorders. Other prizes funded by the Johann Wilhelm Ritter von Mannagetta Foundation go to doctors Elisabeth Salzer and Bernd Boidol, as well as medical historian Carlos Watzka.

This is the first time that the Academy is awarding the prize. It is aimed at scientists under the age of 45, who are conducting research into immune system diseases.

Funding awards for young people in medicine
In addition to the Prize for Medicine, the ÖAW is also awarding two generous funding awards. These go to scientists who gained their PhD's no longer than four years ago and have produced outstanding publications in the field of medical research. This year, the awards go to Elisabeth Salzer, postdoc at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, for her papers on congenital immunodeficiencies, and Bernd Boidol, postdoc at MedUni Vienna, for his research in the field of haematology.

Prize for the History of Medicine
The Johann Wilhelm Ritter von Mannagetta Prize for the History of Medicine goes to sociologist and medical historian Carlos Watzka from the University of Graz. He is being awarded the prize in recognition of his research work into the social history of medicine in the early modern period.


Image: ÖAW/Elia Zilberberg
from left: Carlos Watzka, Elisabeth Salzer, Bernd Boidol, and Kaan Boztug

The prizes are named after Johann Wilhelm Ritter von Mannagetta (1588–1666).  The doctor was Rector of the University of Vienna for multiple terms of office and personal physician to Ferdinand II, Ferdinand III and Leopold I. His grave can be found in St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. In 1661, he set up a foundation, which still exists today. The Johann Wilhelm Ritter von Mannagetta Foundation supports the Austrian Academy of Sciences by funding prizes in the field of medicine and scholarships in humanities, cultural and social sciences.

About Kaan Boztug
Following his medical studies in Düsseldorf, Freiburg and London and a doctorate at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla/San Diego in the USA, Kaan Boztug  completed his clinical training and postdoctoral research work at Hanover Medical School. In 2011, he took up an appointment as Group Leader at CeMM and also worked at the Medical University of Vienna's Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. In addition to that, he is head of the CeRUD Vienna Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases and head of the Jeffrey Modell Center for Congenital Immunodeficiencies at St. Anna Children's Hospital and MedUni Vienna. Since 2016, Kaan Boztug has been director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases. Boztug has received numerous prizes and international awards, including an Austrian Science Fund START Prize, both an ERC Starting Grant and Consolidator Grant and the Clemens von Pirquet Prize as the most cited scientist in paediatric and adolescent medicine 2018. Since March 2019 he has been Scientific Director of St. Anna Children's Cancer Research.