The E.K. Frey-E. Werle Commemorative Gold Medal

 

Emil-Karl Frey was a surgeon in Munich, Germany, who in 1925 discovered “F‑substance” – a compound found originally in human urine - that could reduce arterial blood pressure when injected into dogs.  F-substance was then called kallikrein because it was thought to have originated in the pancreas (kallikreas is Greek for pancreas).

Eugen Werle was a chemist that in 1937 identified kallikrein as a proteolytic enzyme that liberates the bioactive peptide kallidin from a blood plasma protein called kininogen. 

Therefore, the fundamental knowledge of the system that we refer to today as the kallikrein-kinin system was solved by the combined efforts of the surgeon Frey and the chemist Werle.

 

In 1988 the Henning L. Voigt Family donated 1 million Deutsch Marks to establish the E.K. Frey-E. Werle Foundation.  The purpose of the Foundation is to promote science to further the understanding of the kallikrein-kinin system in health and disease.  The foundation supports research and meetings related to study of the kallikrien-kinin system, and bestows awards to notable researchers in this area, including the Foundation’s Gold Medal Award. The Gold Medal is awarded to scientists that have made outstanding contributions to understanding the role of the kallikrein-kinin system and related subjects in health and disease and with significant influence on the development of these fields. 

 

In 2009 this medal was awarded to Dr. Michael Blaber of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Florida State University, in recognition of his fundamental contributions to the Structural Biology and Enzymology of the Human Kallikrein-related Peptidases.  The medal was awarded to Dr. Blaber, by Dr. Hans Fritz, Governor of the E.K. Frey-E. Werle Foundation, at a special ceremony of the 3rd International Symposium on Kallikreins and Kallikrein-related Peptidases, Munich, Germany, Aug 30 2009.

 

Previous winners of the E.K. Frey-E. Werle Commemorative Gold Medal

 

The specific research recognized by the award.

Image of the Gold Medal awarded to Dr. Michael Blaber

 

Dr. Hans Fritz (right), Governor of the E.K. Frey-E. Werle Foundation, awarding the Gold Medal to Dr. Michael Blaber (left).