STS Excellence and Innovation Awards

The future of transplant medicine is fueled by efforts of outstanding researchers and their teams. Innovative preclinical and clinical research projects will continuously improve our knowledge of transplantation and address emerging challenges.

To advance transplant research in Switzerland, the Swiss Transplantation Society (STS) conferred 2 awards, one STS Excellence Award, endowed with CHF 20’000.- and one STS Innovation Award with CHF 10’000.-. Both awards are financially supported by Astellas Pharma AG and were distributed at the STS Annual Meeting in Thun, January 2023.

An independent jury of experts elects 2 award winners among eligible candidates who may be surgeons, physicians or other persons active in translational transplantation research as well as clinical practice within Switzerland. The STS Excellence Award shall be conferred to a person in the middle of his/her career, below 55 years of age, whereas the STS Innovation Award shall be conferred to a younger candidate, ≤ 40 years of age, with outstanding future potential. Based on age limits, candidates will automatically qualify for the STS Excellence Award only or for both, the STS Innovation and the STS Excellence Award. The same rules otherwise apply for all candidates (see enclosed rules) except that criteria 10.b), 10.c) and 10.d) of these rules will be double-weighted for the evaluation of the STS Innovation Award. The winners are awarded as the representatives of a research group or project for outstanding scientific and/or clinical achievements.

Call for Nominations

For further details, please consult the STS webpages for the STS Excellence Award and the STS Innovation Award as well as the award rules published there.

Applications must be sent to the deadline of 15th of October 2023 to the STS Secretariat office: [email protected] – Mrs Nicole Giacomini – T 021 312 92 62.

Award Winners

We cordially congratulate the winner of the 3rd STS Innovation Award 2022: PhD Maud Wilhelm / MSc Amandeep Kaur. As postdoctoral researcher and research associate, respectively, they have been awarded together with their team for their translational research related to the BK polyomavirus (BKPyV), carried out at the Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel (UniBas). In kidney transplant recipients, BKPyV viremia contributes indirectly and directly to premature allograft failure. Currently, there are no effective antivirals, and treatment strategies rely on reducing immunosuppression. The two researchers and their team explored novel approaches to vaccination and adoptive T-cell therapies for patients undergoing kidney transplantation. If proven effective and safe in clinical trials, their innovative approach will contribute to improve outcomes in renal transplantation.

We would also like to offer our sincere congratulations to the winner of the 6th STS Excellence Award 2022: MD PhD Ekaterine Berishvili. She is a surgeon-scientist leading the Tissue Engineering and Organ Regeneration group of the Department of Surgery, University of Geneva (UNIGE) and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). Together with her team, she is exploring innovative cell-based therapies for type 1 diabetes, combining principles of tissue bioengineering and surgical sciences. Her novel approaches aim at protection of pancreatic islets grafts, with the potential to improve engraftment, vascularization, viability, and graft function. If translated successfully into clinics, patients with difficult to manage type 1 diabetes in need of pancreas islet transplantation will ultimately benefit.

The winners have been officially announced and awarded during the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Transplantation Society in Thun on 27th of January 2023.

Prof. Dr. med. Hendrik Tevaearai, Zurich, STS President (left)
PhD Maud Wilhelm, UniBas, STS Innovation Award winner (middle left)
MSc Amandeep Kaur, UniBas, STS Innovation Award winner (middle right)
PhD Silvia Gluderer, Astellas Pharma AG (right)

Prof. Dr. med. Hendrik Tevaearai, Zurich, STS President (left)
MD PhD Ekaterine Berishvili, UNIGE and HUG, STS Excellence Award winner (middle)
PhD Silvia Gluderer, Astellas Pharma AG (right)

For more information on the previous winners and the award jury, please visit the Swisstransplant Magazine or directly access the articles in German and French by clicking on the weblinks in the table below.

Hall of Fame:

MAT-CH-NON-2023-00030