GIESSEN, GERMANY - Newsaktuell - 18 September 2025. - The jury of the Broermann Medical Innovation Award (BMIA) is honoring Dr. Carl June (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Michel Sadelain (Columbia University) for their groundbreaking research in the field of CAR-T cell therapy. The Broermann Medical Innovation Award is being presented for the first time this year. With prize money of one million euros, it is among the most highly endowed awards for medical research worldwide.

A Revolution in Cancer Therapy

Dr. Carl June and Dr. Michel Sadelain are recognized for their pioneering roles in the genetic modification of T-cells, which enable these cells to identify, attack, and destroy cancer cells. They use synthetic receptors, so-called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which enable T cells to see and kill cancer cells. CAR-T cells achieve remarkable success rates in cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas, and myelomas; for other cancers, this new approach is still in the experimental phase.

Dr. Carl June, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, says: "I am deeply honored to receive the inaugural Broermann Medical Innovation Award together with my esteemed colleague Michel Sadelain. This award not only recognizes our decades of research but above all the transformative potential of CAR-T cell therapy for cancer patients worldwide."

Dr. Michel Sadelain, Director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy (CICET), says: "Receiving the Broermann Medical Innovation Award is an extraordinary honor for me and a recognition of the revolutionary power of CAR-T cell therapy. Together with Carl June, we have worked to turn the immune system into a precise weapon against cancer. Our work precisely symbolizes what the Broermann Award stands for: medical breakthroughs that fundamentally change patients' lives. It fills me with profound gratitude to know that our research helps usher in a new era of cancer treatment and create hope for patients who were once considered incurable."

CAR-T cell therapy has achieved remarkable success rates in treating cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. Through their visionary research, Sadelain and June have ushered in a completely new era in cancer treatment.

Selection process by the renowned jury

The laureates of the Broermann Medical Innovation Award are selected by an outstanding scientific jury consisting of nine senior members of renowned institutes: Prof. Dr. Werner Seeger (Chair of the Broermann Medical Innovation Award), Prof. Dr. Karsten Krüger (Member of the Executive Board of Justus Liebig University Giessen), Prof. Dr. Isabelle Bekeredjian-Ding (Director Center of Infection, Inflammation and Immunity, University of Marburg), Prof. Dr. Britta Siegmund (Vice President of the German Research Foundation), Prof. Dr. Stefan Offermanns (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research), Prof. Dr. Otmar Wiestler (President of the Helmholtz Association), Prof. Dr. Dr. Gerd Geißlinger (Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Clinical Pharmacology), Prof. Dr. Martina Brockmeier (President of the Leibniz Association), and Dr. Jan Liersch (Managing Director of Broermann Holding GmbH). Supported by a group of international reviewers, the committee evaluates all nominations in a multi-stage process that ensures the highest scientific quality and independence. The decision is based on strict selection criteria.

About the laureates

Dr. Carl June was born in Denver, USA, in 1953. He received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and his postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Following a research career in the US Navy, June founded the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI) at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 and established a leading interdisciplinary research initiative for cellular immunotherapies. In 2012, he received the prestigious Richard W. Vague Professorship.

Dr. Michel Sadelain was born in Paris, France, in 1960 and received his medical degree from the University of Paris in 1984 and his PhD from the University of Alberta, Canada in 1989, before conducting postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1994, he joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Sadelain now serves as director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy (CICET) center in New York, established in 2024, where he leads innovative cell therapy research.

Both scientists have received numerous scientific prizes for their pioneering contributions to cancer therapy.



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