Heidelberg, Germany, 6th December 2011 – Cellzome announces today that Dr. Gitte Neubauer, one of the scientific founders of Cellzome, has received the highly esteemed EU Women Innovators Award. The award recognizes her outstanding contribution in translating academic research into a commercial venture through the foundation of Cellzome. The prize value of €100,000 awarded by the European Commission Innovation Union, was presented to Dr. Neubauer by the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso in a ceremony as part of the Innovation Convention 2011 in Brussels.
Dr. Neubauer founded Cellzome together with a team of scientists and biotech veterans as a spin-out of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg in 2000. She applied her experience and know-how in proteomics to build Cellzome’s leading proteomics technology platform. More recently, she started the chemoproteomics-based assay development and screening group, to allow the efficient application of the technology to drug discovery. Today, Cellzome employs about 100 scientists and it applies its world-leading Kinobeads™ and Episphere™ technologies to the discovery of novel drug candidates to treat inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Receiving the award, Dr. Neubauer said: “I am very honoured to receive such a prestigious award and would like to thank the whole team of Cellzomers who have made the company so successful. It has been extremely rewarding to work with so many talented people over the years. I hope that the award is going to encourage more women to translate their research into innovation.”
Tim Edwards, CEO of Cellzome and Chairman of the UK BioIndustry Association, congratulated Dr. Neubauer, saying: “My colleagues and I are delighted that Gitte Neubauer has won this award for her significant contribution in founding Cellzome and in playing a major role in the development of the Company over the past eleven years. Gitte has helped create Cellzome’s chemoproteomics platform and led its development and integration into our drug discovery activities, a vital component of our collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies. Gitte is a great example to the many women we employ; hers is a great achievement.”
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the Commissioner for Research, Innovation & Science of the EU said: “I warmly welcome the decision of the jury and would like to personally congratulate Dr. Neubauer for her outstanding achievements that are recognised by this award. Europe needs more women like her to serve as inspiration to young scientists, particularly young women. I am also very pleased that support from the EU’s Framework Programme for Research has contributed to Dr. Neubauer’s success.”
About the EU Prize for Women Innovators
The EU Prize for Women Innovators is a pilot project of the European Commission. The competition was designed to give public recognition to the outstanding women who brought their innovative products or services successfully to the market and who where at some point in their careers beneficiaries of the European Commission Framework Programme or Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. The awards should at the same time boost public awareness of the contribution and potential of women researchers to science and entrepreneurship and encourage women innovators to exploit the commercial and business opportunities offered by their research projects to become themselves entrepreneurs.
About Cellzome
Cellzome is a world leader in chemoproteomics, transforming the sciences of epigenetics and signal transduction into novel drug candidates in inflammatory diseases and oncology. The Company maintains the highest levels of scientific expertise and has active collaborations with the foremost academic laboratories around the world. Cellzome’s technologies work with native proteins in a physiological setting to discover small molecule drugs targeting protein complexes that underlie diseases. The Company has a track record in delivering significant collaborations with top pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. Cellzome is a privately-held, international, company located in Heidelberg, Germany and Cambridge, UK employing about 100 people, of which 65% are women. For more information please visit: www.cellzome.com
About Dr. Gitte Neubauer
After graduating in Biochemistry at Imperial College, London with the highest marks of her year, Dr. Neubauer completed her PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory working with Prof. Matthias Mann in the field of functional proteomics where she pioneered the mass spectrometric analysis of protein complexes. At Cellzome, she has been in charge of building and leading the mass spectrometry and IT departments before she was more recently made responsible for research operations and the setting up of the chemoproteomics screening facility. Dr. Neubauer is the author of 35 scientific publications, including 11 highly cited research articles (over 100 citations). She is a member of the advisory editorial board of the journal Drug Discovery Today, a Director of the Board of BioPro Baden-Württemberg, an agency providing advice and support to the life sciences sector and also a member of the industrial advisory board of the Biotechnology faculty of the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim. Dr. Neubauer is married and has three children aged 7, 10 and 14 years.
For more information please contact:
Cellzome:
Dr. Gitte Neubauer
Vice President Research Operations
Tel: +49 (0) 6221-137 57-100
press@cellzome.com
Media contact:
Nicole Yost, Jayne Crook
College Hill
Tel: +44 (0)20 7866 7862
cellzome@collegehill.com
