Esterbauer award

 

The Esterbauer Award was created to honour the memory of Professor Hermann Esterbauer, who discovered the lipid peroxidation product 4-hydroxynonenal. The prize was first awarded in 2002, at the 1st International Meeting of the HNE-Club in Salzburg, and since then it has been awarded every 2 years at the biennial meeting of the HNE-Club.

Hermann Esterbauer (1936-1997)

Hermann Esterbauer got his doctoral degree in 1963 as student of Erwin Schauenstein at the University of Graz, with a thesis on the production of hydroxyalkenals (including HNE) by autoxidation of unsaturated fatty acids. In the University of Graz, he headed the division of analytical biochemistry since 1967, then he became chairman of the Institute of Biochemistry from 1988 until his departure.
Key points of his great scientific career have been the interaction with TF Slater and MU Dianzani on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the aldehydic end-products of the peroxidation of biomembrane lipids and the active involvement in the Association for International Cancer Research (USA) which made him in connection with several top scientists like A. Szent-Györgyi, L Packer, D. Steinberg. Around 1984, he discovered that LDL modified by 4-hydroxynonenal was poorly reacting with LDL receptors but avidly reacting with scavenger receptors, being by this way quickly taken up by macrophages. Such a finding still represents a milestone in the investigation of pathomechanisms of atherosclerosis.
Hermann Esterbauer was one of the most gifted biochemical scholars of the 20th century, who pioneered our understanding of relationships between lipoprotein oxidation, antioxidants and atherosclerosis. He trained an entire new generation of scientists. This conference is a tribute to his enormous contributions to science” (Lester Packer, Hermann Esterbauer Memorial Meeting, October 2007).

Awards Committee

ECKL, Peter
GUERAUD, Françoise
MANN, Giovanni E.
REED, Tanea
SPICKETT, Corinne M.
UCHIDA, Koji
WERNER, Siems
ZARKOVIC, Neven

Previous Awardees

2002 Dr Norbert Leitinger (Vienna) & Dr Mark A. Smith (Cleveland) [Joint winners]
2004 Dr Cinzia Domenicotti (Genoa)
2006 Dr Karim Echtay (Balamand, Lebanon)
2008 Dr Matthew Picklo (Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, USA)
2010 Dr  Tanea T. Reed (Eastern Kentucky University, USA)
2012 Dr Ana Reis  (Aston Triangle Birmingham, UK)
2014 Dr Christophe Soulages (INSA Lyon, CarMeN, France)