(Vienna, 03 September 2021) Kaan Boztug, paediatrician at MedUni Vienna, Scientific Director of St. Anna Children's Cancer Research and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, has been awarded the Işil Berat Barlan Award for his outstanding research in the field of primary immunodeficiencies. This year, the awards are being presented at the European Congress of Immunology (ECI).
The scientist is receiving this award for his pioneering research into immunodeficiencies. Imbalances of the immune system can be the starting point for a number of diseases such as increased susceptibility to infections, autoimmune diseases and cancer. The study of congenital immune system defects makes it possible to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying such serious diseases. This forms the basis for new effective treatment approaches.
"I have had the great fortune to meet and work with Professor Işil Berat Barlan personally, so that this award has a very special meaning for me. The award in memory of Professor Barlan is a wonderful way to honour her life and her many achievements in paediatrics and immunology - I am therefore thrilled to receive this award," said Kaan Boztug.
About the award
The Turkish Society of Immunology, together with Professor Talal Chatila of Harvard Medical School, has conferred the awards every year since 2016 in honour of their late colleague Işil Berat Barlan, a distinguished doctor and scientist, who made invaluable contributions in the fields of Allergy and Immunology both in Turkey and internationally.
About Kaan Boztug
Kaan Boztug was born in Eregli/Turkey and studied medicine in Düsseldorf, Freiburg and London. In 2011, he joined the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna as Principal Investigator, establishing a research group there. He works as a doctor and professor of paediatrics and adolescent medicine at MedUni Vienna and St. Anna Children's Hospital, has headed up the Vienna Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (CeRUD) since 2014 and has been Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases since 2016. Since 2019, he has also been Scientific Director of St. Anna Children's Cancer Research.