Prof. Dr. Ralf Bartenschlager

Insti­tute Molec­u­lar Virol­ogy, Univer­sity of Heidel­berg & Divisiont of Virus-associ­ated Carcino­gen­e­sis, German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg

Ralf Barten­schlager is Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Molec­u­lar Virol­ogy at the Centre for Infec­tious Diseases at the Medical Faculty of the Univer­sity of Heidel­berg and Head of the Division of Virus-Associ­ated Carcino­gen­e­sis at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.

The virol­o­gist researches the repro­duc­tion strate­gies and the immune biology of medical impor­tant hepati­tis viruses as well as flaviviruses, especially the dengue virus and the zika virus. He achieved to develop cell culture models of the hepati­tis C virus (HCV), with which it was possi­ble for the first time to simulate in vitro the viral repli­ca­tion cycle. These models form the founda­tion for the devel­op­ment of antivi­ral medica­tions for HCV, which elimi­nate the virus of 95% of the treated people.

Ralf Barten­schlager was awarded, inter alia, the Lasker-DeBakey Award, the Robert Koch Prize, the Mahidol Award, the Beijer­ick Virol­ogy Prize and the Ernst-Jung Prize. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopold­ina) and the European Molec­u­lar Biology Organi­za­tion (EMBO) as well as presi­dent of the Society for Virol­ogy (GfV) and holder of an honory doctorate.