23 May Johan Neyts awarded the Gertrude Elion Memorial Award
On the 20th of May 2024, Johan Neyts, our partner from KU Leuven, was awarded the Gertrude Elion Memorial Award at the 37th International Conference on Antiviral Research (ICAR).
Each year, the Awards Committee of the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR) selects a senior scientist who has made considerable contributions to the scientific field. Named after Dr. Gertrude Elion (1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), the Gertrude Elion Memorial Award is awarded to outstanding scientists with career-long scientific prominence in antiviral research who has a genuine love for science. Recipients of this award received a total amount of $7,500 and were asked to give a 45-minute lecture during the conference.
As the recipient of this year’s Gertrude Elion Memorial Award, Johan delivered a lecture titled ‘My Battle Against Viruses’. As a Full Professor at the Rega Institute in KU Leuven, Belgium, Johan is leading his team in the development of novel antiviral strategies against several RNA viruses including flaviviruses, picornaviruses, coronaviruses, and several others. Aside from being a recipient of several other scientific awards, Johan is also a partner in several large EU-funded consortia that are developing and discovering antivirals and vaccines.
“I am touched and honored to have been the recipient of the award” Johan wrote on his LinkedIn post, in which he also stated, “Dr. Gertrude Elion has made hugely important contributions to the developments of drugs such as for the treatment of infections with herpesviruses and HIV…receiving the award that carries her name means truly (Trudy) a lot to me”.