Prof. Dr. Jutta Gärtner awarded EUR 100,000 in City Hall
The Academy of Sciences presented the Hamburg Science Prize 2019 to Prof. Dr. Jutta Gärtner Friday (November 8, 11.2019) in City Hall for her research into rare congenital neurometabolic diseases among children and adolescents. Gärtner is Director of the Clinic for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University Medical Centre Göttingen. The award worth EUR 100,000 is donated by the Hamburg Foundation for Science, Development and Culture Helmut and Hannelore Greve.
Physician discovered new diseases
“This year’s Hamburg Science Prize ‘Rare Congenital Diseases’ draws attention to a group of diseases that pose special challenges for diagnosis and therapy. Rare congenital diseases such as multiple sclerosis often lead to symptoms in childhood and adolescence,” said Katharina Fegebank, Deputy Mayor of Hamburg and Senator for Science, Research and Equality. The professor’s work is enormously important for improving the recovery chances of affected children and adolescents and relieving the burden on their families. Gärtner is highly committed to translational research in paediatrics and adolescent medicine. She has discovered and described new clinical pictures in the course of her research.
Research opens up new treatment options
The doctor has laid the foundations for a better understanding of cell metabolism in the child’s brain and has opened up new avenues for developing new therapies. Prof. Dr. Edwin J. Kreuzer, President of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg and Chairman of the Jury, said: “Her research results also give rise to hopes that early diagnosis and therapy can prevent or at least contain the damage that rare neurodegenerative diseases can cause in the developing brain and nervous system to mitigate the development of cognitive and motor disorders through to dementia.” Gärtner’s work is internationally regarded as ground-breaking in causal research and developing therapies for treating rare diseases among children.
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Sources and further information:
www.hamburg.de
www.awhamburg.de
www.kinderklinik.uni-goettingen.de