One of the four 2007 International Balzan Prizes, with a prize fund of CHF1m (Euro 610,000), is to be awarded for research in the area of innate immunity to Bruce Beutler of the Scripps Research Institute, USA and Jules Hoffmann of the Academie des Sciences, France.
"For their discovery of the genetic mechanisms responsible for innate immunity they have worked in close cooperation to develop a new vision of the molecular defence strategy deployed by animals across a wide evolutionary spectrum against infectious agents. Their work has led to very promising medical applications", said Nicole Le Douarin, a member of Balzan's general prize committee
President of the committee, Sergio Romano, added that the awarded subjects, which vary each year, make it possible to encourage specific fields of study which are new or unknown to other international awards.
Half of the prize money received by the winner of each of the four subjects must be used for research work, preferably involving young scholars and researchers.