(Vienna, 07 December 2021) Kaan Boztug, consultant in paediatrics and adolescent medicine and internationally renowned expert in rare haematopoietic and immunological diseases, has accepted a professorship (§ 99 Para. 4 UG) in the subject field Paediatrics and Inflammation Research at the Medical University of Vienna's Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine with effect from 01 December 2021.
During the course of his medical and scientific work in the field of congenital immunodeficiencies and haematopoietic disorders, Kaan Boztug has played a leading role in the description and molecular characterisation of more than 15 previously unknown diseases. These research projects have explained essential mechanisms of haematopoiesis and bone marrow failure, T- and B-cell regulation and neutrophil function, thereby paving the way for future personalised therapeutic approaches.
He has received numerous prizes and international awards, including the FWF START Prize, one ERC Starting Grant and one ERC Consolidator Grant, for this outstanding work, which has been published in renowned high-impact journals. He has also received the Merit Award of the American Society of Hematology, the Kind-Philipp Prize for Leukaemia Research, the Clemens von Pirquet Prize of the Austrian Society for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the City of Vienna Research Prize for medical sciences, and the Johann Wilhelm Ritter von Mannagetta Prize for Medicine awarded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
As a Physician Scientist, he has always combined research with the care and treatment of patients with rare and undiagnosed haematopoietic and immunological diseases. In his clinical and experimental research, his aim is to expand activities in the field of rare diseases and foster the synergies that exist between interdisciplinary experts and encourage collaborative working. He is particularly committed to imparting this translational approach in the teaching and training of talented young researchers and clinicians.
"Excellent collaboration between clinicians and experts from different disciplines and institutions is essential for medical progresss and success, especially in the field of rare diseases. This is my greatest driver, as is my need for a deep molecular understanding of the causes of immunological and haematological diseases, so that we can use this as a basis for developing precision-medicine approaches!"
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 over the position as Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and, since then, has also worked at the Medical University of Vienna's Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. He is also head of the CeRUD Vienna Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases at MedUni Vienna and Senior Doctor in the Department of Haematology and Oncology at St. Anna Children's Hospital. Since 2016, Boztug has been Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD), which is in close partnership with the institutions CeMM, CCRI and MedUni Vienna. Boztug has also been the scientific director of St. Anna Children's Cancer Research since 2019.