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) has been conferring two awards: the STS Excellence Award, endowed with CHF 20,000, and the STS Innovation Award, endowed with CHF 10,000. Both awards are financially supported by Astellas Pharma AG and were initiated in 2016. At the STS annual meeting in Thun in January 2025, the STS Innovation Award was distributed. There were no applications for the STS Excellence Award this year. For the upcoming year, eligible candidates in the transplant field are highly encouraged to apply for both awards to promote further advancements in this vital area of research.

 

An independent jury of experts elects two 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 STS website). 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 webpage for the STS Excellence Award and the STS Innovation Awards, including the applicable award rules as well as the next call for nominations published there.

 

In case of questions, please contact the STS Secretariat office: office@swisstransplantationsociety.com – Mrs Nicole Giacomini – T 021 312 92 62.

Award Winners

We cordially congratulate the winner of the 6th STS Innovation Award 2024: MD PhD Lena Berchtold. She is a nephrologist trained in Switzerland and is currently affiliated with Geneva University Hospital (HUG). Dr. Berchtold aims to advance kidney transplantation through her research on non-invasive tools for evaluating kidney function. Her work addresses the critical need for innovative strategies to identify kidneys at risk of primary nonfunction or early graft failure. The ultimate goal of this research is to prevent donor organ graft rejection in the future by enabling pain-free assessment of kidney function in vivo before transplantation, thereby generating better outcomes. Dr. Berchtold plans to further develop multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, and combine them with biomarkers of renal function from pre-transplant biopsies and urine samples. This non-invasive approach has the potential to improve kidney allograft selection, reduce discard rates, and ultimately enhance access to transplantation for patients in need, significantly impacting the field of renal transplantation.

 

The winners have been officially announced and awarded during the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Transplantation Society in Thun on 24th of January 2025.

Prof. Dr. med. Markus Barten, Hamburg, Head of Jury (left)
MD PhD Lena Berchtold, HUG, STS Innovation Award winner (middle)
PhD Stephanie Wachner, Astellas Pharma AG (right)

This year, the STS Scientific Committee aimed to give a voice to young fellows by introducing, for the first time, oraI and poster presentations of their submissions based on work carried out during the year 2024. These recognition awards were supported by Astellas. The Best Oral Presentation award went to Matthias Diebold from Basel for his work on the "Effect of Felzartamab Anti-CD38 Treatment on the Molecular Ph enotype of Antibody-Mediated Rejecti on in Kidney Transplant Biopsies." The Best Poster Presentation award was awarded to Dusan Harmacek from Zurich for his research on "Biopsy-Based Transcript Diagnostics Improves Prognostication with Respect to Kidney Allograft Loss and eGFR Decline Along the AMR Continuum." These awards highlight the innovative research of emerging researchers in the field.

(from left to right):
Prof. Nicolas Müller, Zurich, Chair of the STS Scientific Committee
Dr. med. Matthias Diebold, Basel

 (from left to right)
Prof. Nicolas Müller, Zurich, Chair of the STS Scientific Committee
Dr. med. Dusan Harmacek, Zurich

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:

Year Award Winner Link to Article in Swisstransplant Magazine
2024 Innovation
Recognition
 MD PhD Lena Berchtold, HUG
Dr. med. Matthias Diebold, USB (best oral presentation)
Dr. med. Dusan Harmacek, USZ (best poster)		 n/a
2023 Innovation
Excellence		 MD PhD Andrea Peoloso, UNIGE and HUG
Dr. med. Julien Vionnet, CHUV		 n/a
2022 Innovation
Excellence		 PhD Maud Wilhelm / MSc Amandeep Kaur, UniBas
MD PhD Ekaterine Berishvili, UNIGE and HUG		 n/a
2020/21 Innovation
Excellence		 Dr. med. Dilmurodjon Eshmuminov, USZ
Dr. med. Graziano Oldani, HUG		 n/a
2020 Innovation
Excellence		 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the annual congress of the Swiss Transplantation Society 2021 had to be cancelled. Thus, the Excellence and Innovation Awards 2020 could not take place as planned, but the candidates who applied in 2020 were informed that they are automatically candidates for 2021. n/a
2019 Innovation
Excellence		 MD PhD Alban Longchamp, CHUV
Prof. MD PhD Déla Golshayan, CHUV		 n/a
2018 Excellence Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Schaub, USB n/a
2017 Excellence Prof. MD PhD Christian Toso, HUG German, French
2016 Excellence PD Dr. Oriol Manuel, CHUV German, French