Winner 2009: Stephen James Till
Stephen Till started his career in 1993 when he was working on a PhD-project entitled “Mechanisms of Asthma” together with Professor Barry Kay at the Imperial College in London.
Today he is busy completing training within internal medicine in order to become an adult allergist, so Stephen Till has certainly devoted his life to allergy.
While he was busy finalizing his medical training he also managed to continue his laboratory research focusing on allergic patients’ immune response to grass pollen, and induction of tolerance following allergen specific immunotherapy. Stephen Till has written over 30 original articles as well as reviews and book chapters within this subject.
His latest piece of work was a Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology paper highlighted by the Journal as an ‘Editor’s Choice’ article. The study represented the first study which was looking for very early markers of tolerance induction during immunotherapy with a grass pollen vaccine. Interestingly, increasing concentrations of circulating IL-10 was an extremely early event indicating the induction of regulatory T cells which by far precedes the induction of allergen specific ‘blocking IgG’ antibodies.
2007: Dr. Barbara Bohle (A), Medical University of Vienna
For more than ten years Dr. Barbara Bohle has conducted research focused on the T cell of the allergic immune response. Her career has developed from basic studies on the biology of the T cell to the role of the T cell in allergen specific immunotherapy including suggestions for improved forms of specific treatment.
2005: Dr. Omid Akbari (US), Harvard University
Dr. Omid Akbari was honoured for his research into cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of allergic inflammation and representing the immunological basis of allergic asthma.
2004: Dr. Christopher Lynn Kepley (US), Commonwealth university of Virginia
Dr. Christopher Kepley was honoured for his research activities in mechanisms regulating FceRI secretion from mast cells and Basophils.
2003: Erika Ganglberger (A), University of Vienna
Dr. Erika Ganglberger was honoured for her research activities in the development of a novel treatment for type I allergy based on minotype technology.
2002: Miriam Fleur Moffatt (UK), University of Oxford
Dr. Moffatt was honoured for her studies of the genetics of specific allergy focusing on the role of the T-cell receptor genes, the HLA genes and the b-chain gene of the high affinity receptor for IgE.
2001: Eckard Hamelmann (D), Humboldt-University
Dr. Eckard Hamelmann was honoured for his contribution to the use of murine models for the study of allergen-mediated sensitisation, airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness.
2000: Mark Larché (UK), Imperial College
Dr. Mark Larché was honoured for his work with the analysis of peptide-based immunotherapy for allergic asthma in man.