Marcel Tanner

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Marcel Tanner (2020)
Roll of honor for Marcel Tanner on the Walk of Spalebärg in Basel

Marcel Tanner (born October 1, 1952 in Basel ) is a Swiss epidemiologist , malaria researcher and public health specialist. He is President of the R. Geigy Foundation, President of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences , Director emeritus of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH).

Life and academic career

Marcel Tanner studied medical parasitology at the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel. In his dissertation he dealt with the pathogens of African sleeping sickness . In 1979 he traveled to Cameroon to develop antigens for better diagnostics against African river blindness . While working with the village population, Tanner realized the importance of public health and its wide range of problems. The people suffered from diarrhea and respiratory diseases, malaria and rotten teeth. The houses were without electricity and the women drew drinking water from a remote river.

In 1981 Marcel Tanner took over the management of the Swiss Tropical Institute Field Laboratory (STIFL) in Ifakara Tanzania . He consistently implemented research programs with and for the local population. His aim was also to hand over the STIFL, founded in 1957, to Tanzanian hands. He established contacts with the government, promoted cooperation with the affected people in the Kilombero district and enabled the first local scientists to pursue a career at the field laboratory, which he developed over the years of cooperation and partnership with the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI).

In 1984 Marcel Tanner received a Masters in Public Health from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was appointed head of the “Health Care and Epidemiology” department at the Tropical Institute in Basel and, in 1997, director. Under him, the Tropical Institute rose to become a world-renowned institute for global health, at which up to 800 experts from a wide variety of disciplines work. Tanner is the author of over 700 original papers, 51 book chapters, over 400 brief reports, and numerous evaluation reports for governments and international organizations.

Marcel Tanner is now professor emeritus for epidemiology and parasitology at the University of Basel , where he was dean between 2002 and 2004. Between 2016 and 2020 he was President of the Swiss Academies of Natural Sciences . In 2019 he was elected President of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences - initially ad interim. He also presides over the R. Geigy Foundation.

engagement

Tanner has initiated and continued numerous initiatives to combat neglected diseases and diseases of poverty in the countries of the South. He was a founding member of Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DND I ). As director of Swiss TPH and its partner institutions, particularly in Tanzania, he was in charge of the development of malaria vaccines . The first vaccine against the disease ( RTS, S ) was routinely introduced in 2019 in a pilot phase in three African countries (Kenya, Ghana, Malawi). Marcel Tanner advocates the principle that it is not enough to develop new drugs or vaccines without investing in building weak health systems and training local experts. He campaigns strongly for young researchers from underprivileged countries and their training. He also criticizes the current scientific system: "The training of young junior researchers is much more important than this urge for scientific publications and evaluation via impact factors ."

Tanner is also President of the R. Geigy Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of the University Hospital Basel and a member of numerous other foundations and scientific organizations such as the Gebert Rüf Foundation , the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND), the INCLEN Trust, the Botnar Foundation and the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases. In April 2020, Tanner was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the National COVID-19 Science Task Force.

Awards

Marcel Tanner is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, such as B .:

  • 2008 - Honorary doctorate from the University of Neuchâtel
  • 2015 - Prize for transdisciplinary research from the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
  • 2018 - Appointment as "High Representative" of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)
  • 2018 - Member of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
  • 2018 - Grand Jet d'Or de Genève of the Geneva Health Forum (GHF)
  • 2020 - Honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walk of Spalebärg (PDF)
  2. ↑ a b Marcel Tanner becomes President ad interim of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences | 03.12.2019 | Message | Natural Sciences Switzerland. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Marcel Tanner. In: Swiss TPH. Retrieved June 10, 2020 (Fri-FR).
  4. ↑ Marcel Tanner: Cultivator of Trypanosoma (Trypanozoon) brucei in vitro: growth conditions for blood forms. Inaugural dissertation University of Basel, Basel 1980.
  5. ↑ a b Lukas Meier: Anyone who only has visions should see a psychiatrist . In: René Salathé (Ed.): Permanent traces: Biographies from Basel-Stadt and Land . Reinhardt, Basel 2017.
  6. ^ A b Marcel Tanner, Andrew Kitua, Antoine Degrémont: From a Swiss Tropical Institue Field Laboratory to the Ifakara Center of the Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research . In: Acta Tropica . No. 57 , 2014, p. 153-173 .
  7. ↑ Retired but not tired: Marcel Tanner is ending his successful career as a professor. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Marcel Tanner takes over the presidency of SCNAT | 05/01/2016 | Message | Natural Sciences Switzerland. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  9. ↑ FOUNDATION BOARD. Retrieved April 27, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ Marcel Tanner: “This Nobel Prize spurs us all on” | 06/10/2015 | Message | Natural Sciences Switzerland. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Rob Hooft van Huijsduijnen, Timothy Wells, Marcel Tanner, Sergio Wittlin: Two Decades of successful Swiss collaborations to develop new anti-malarials. In: Malaria Journal . tape 18 , no. 1 .
  12. ↑ DNDi Welcomes Marcel Tanner As Chair of the Board of Directors Along With New Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee | DNDi. July 12, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2020 (UK English).
  13. ↑ The Tireless . In: Tages-Anzeiger . ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed April 27, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Salim Abdulla, Rolf Oberholzer, Omar Juma, Sulende Kubhoja, Francisca Machera: Safety and Immunogenicity of RTS, S / AS02D Malaria Vaccine in Infants . In: New England Journal of Medicine . tape 359 , no. 24 , December 11, 2008, ISSN  0028-4793 , p. 2533-2544 , doi : 10.1056 / NEJMoa0807773 ( nejm.org [accessed June 23, 2020]).
  15. ↑ FOUNDATION BOARD. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Board of Trustees | Gebert Rüf Foundation. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  17. ^ The Federal Council: APK reference page. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Tanner, Marcel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss epidemiologist, malaria researcher and public health specialist
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel