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Carl Mannich Medal 2024 - High Distinction for Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer

The German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG) has awarded Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer the Carl Mannich Medal 2024. The Carl Mannich Medal is the DPhG's highest award for outstanding achievements in the field of scientific pharmacy.

Professor Laufer studied pharmacy in Regensburg. After gaining his license to practice as a pharmacist, he obtained his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in Regensburg in 1989. He then went into the pharmaceutical industry and worked at Merckle Pharmaceuticals for nine years. In 1997, Laufer habilitated in pharmaceutical chemistry and was appointed private lecturer at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. In 1999, he accepted the call for a C4 professorship for pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Tübingen (successor to Prof. Dr. Roth), which he has held ever since.

Laufer is a pioneer in the field of kinase inhibitors and has contributed significantly to the early development of selective protein kinase inhibitors as antitumor therapeutics. In his research projects, he has also worked on numerous other targets (including COX-1/2/3, lipoxygenases, cPLA₂, transcription factors and replication proteins). An impressive number of the molecules developed by himhave made it into clinical development. 640 publications, amongst others in Nature Medicine and Lancet, 48 patents and the supervision of 114 dissertations and 4 habilitations are proof of his scientific success.

Laufer has always been committed to the pharmaceutical sciences and was President of the German Pharmaceutical Society from 2016 to 2019.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Jaehde
DPhG-President

Merckle Promotionspreis Pharmazie 2020

Die RAM Stiftung Ulm verlieh Herrn Dr. Dirk Flötgen, aus dem Arbeitskreis Professor Dr. Stefan Laufer, am Tag der Pharmazie, den Merckle Promotionspreis Pharmazie 2020, für seine herausragende Dissertation.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer (l.) und Dr. Bent Praefke (r.)

Promotionspreis 2020

Herrn Dr. Bent Praefke wurde in Anerkennung seiner herausragenden Dissertation mit dem Thema „Design und Synthese neuartiger Inhibitoren der Mitogen-aktivierten Proteinkinase Kinase 4 (MKK4)“ der Promotionspreis 2020 von der GDCh-Fachgruppe Medizinische Chemie verliehen. In seiner Doktorarbeit entwickelte Herr Dr. Praefke im Arbeitskreis von Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer durch eine „Scaffold-hopping“ Strategie hochpotente und selektive Inhibitoren der MKK4 sowie eine effiziente Syntheseroute, welche die Darstellung von Zielverbindungen im Multigramm-Maßstab ermöglicht. Die Proteinkinase MKK4 wurde durch RNA-Interferenzexperimente als eine vielversprechende pharmakologische Zielstruktur für die Behandlung des akuten und des chronischen Leberversagens entdeckt. Der Effekt der genetischen Stilllegung der MKK4 soll zukünftig mit den entwickelten niedermolekularen Inhibitoren verifiziert werden.