News and Publications

Press Release

Francis V. Chisari, M.D., to Receive Prestigious Jung Prize

La Jolla, CA -- April 11, 1997. Francis V. Chisari, M.D., Professor and Head of the Division of Experimental Pathology and Director of the General Clinical Research Center at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), will receive the 1997 Ernst Jung-Preis fur Medizin. This prestigious international award, endowed by German industrialist Ernst Jung, recognizes outstanding scientific discoveries that have had a major impact in experimental medicine. Co-winners of this year's prize are Drs. Hans Hengartner (University of Zurich) and Judah Folkman (Harvard University). Each Jung Laureate will receive 200,000 DM from the Board of Trustees of the Jung-Stiftung fur Wissenschaft und Forschung on June 6, 1997, in Hamburg, Germany.

Dr. Chisari is being honored as "a leading pioneer in virology for his trail-blazing work on hepatitis B virus immunology and carcinogenesis." His award recognizes a series of seminal discoveries from his laboratory that defined the immunological basis for HBV clearance, persistence and disease; demonstrated that the immune response can terminate HBV replication without killing infected cells; established the basis for the development of liver cancer during chronic HBV infection; and laid the foundation for the development of therapeutic vaccines to cure chronic hepatitis, the leading cause of liver cancer throughout the world.

Dr. Chisari is a graduate of Fordham University and received a medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. He is board certified in internal medicine and anatomic pathology. Following a two-year research fellowship in virology at the National Institutes of Health, he joined Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in 1973, first as a fellow in immunology and subsequently as a member of the scientific faculty. In addition to his appointment at TSRI, since 1987 he has been an adjunct professor in the Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

The author of more than 200 scientific publications, Dr. Chisari is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Research Career Development Award, Fogarty Senior International Fellowship, and MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health. He also is a Foreign Scholar of the Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale, France; a recipient of the Sheila Sherlock Liver Research Prize, University of Toronto; a member of the Association of American Physicians; and recently he has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

TSRI faculty member Dr. Peter Vogt received the Jung Prize in 1985. Other well-known Jung laureates include Dr. Anthony Fauci (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases); Dr. Charles Weissman (University of Zurich); Dr. Harald zur Hausen (German Cancer Research Center); and Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel (University of Zurich), co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

For more information contact:
Keith McKeown
10550 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, California 92037

Tel: 858.784.8134
Fax: 858.784.8118
kmckeown@scripps.edu