Gisbert Schneider, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland, has received the Ernst Schering Prize 2022. The award has been established by the Ernst Schering Research Foundation in 1991 and honors scientists worldwide whose pioneering research has yielded new, inspiring models or led to fundamental shifts in biomedical knowledge. It is endowed with EUR 50,000. The Ernst Schering Prize Lecture 2022 took place on September 29, 2022, at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germany.

Schneider receives the prize for his outstanding research in the field of molecular design, especially the development of machine learning methods to predict drug activity. According to the Schering Foundation, the transfer of this innovative concept into medicinal chemistry and chemical biology is recognized as an important contribution to the theory and practice of modern biomedicine.

Gisbert Schneider, born in 1965, studied biochemistry at Free University Berlin, Germany, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1994. After postdoctoral research at the Benjamin Franklin University Clinic, Berlin, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, he gained industrial experience at Hoffmann–La Roche AG, Basel, Switzerland, where he worked as a scientific specialist from 1997 to 2001.

Schneider completed his habilitation in biochemistry and bioinformatics at the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2000. From 2002 to 2009, he held the Beilstein Endowed Chair for Chem-​ and Bioinformatics at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He was appointed Professor for Computer-Assisted Drug Design at ETH Zurich in 2010. From 2018 to 2020, Schneider also served as Associate Vice President of ETH Global. He has also served as Director of the Singapore-ETH Center in Singapore since 2021.

Among other awards, Gisbert Schneider has received the Herman Skolnik Award from the Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2018, the Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery in 2020, and the Gmelin-Beilstein Memorial Medal in 2022. In 2014, he was named a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thomson Reuters.

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Selected Publications

• Translating from Proteins to Ribonucleic Acids for Ligand‐Binding Site Detection,
  Lukas Möller, Lorenzo Guerci, Clemens Isert, Kenneth Atz, Gisbert Schneider,
  Mol. Inform. 2022.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/minf.202200059
• Identification of novel off targets of baricitinib and tofacitinib by machine learning with a focus on thrombosis and viral infection,
  Maria L. Faquetti, Francesca Grisoni, Petra Schneider, Gisbert Schneider, Andrea M. Burden,
  Sci. Rep. 2022.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11879-1
• QMugs, quantum mechanical properties of drug-like molecules,
  Clemens Isert, Kenneth Atz, José Jiménez-Luna, Gisbert Schneider,
  Sci. Data 2022.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01390-7
• Beam Search for Automated Design and Scoring of Novel ROR Ligands with Machine Intelligence,
  Michael Moret, Moritz Helmstädter, Francesca Grisoni, Gisbert Schneider, Daniel Merk,
  Angewa. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 19477–19482.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202104405
• Counting on natural products for drug design,
  Tiago Rodrigues, Daniel Reker, Petra Schneider, Gisbert Schneider,
  Nat. Chem. 2016, 8, 531–541.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.2479
• Designing antimicrobial peptides: form follows function,
  Christopher D. Fjell, Jan A. Hiss, Robert E. W. Hancock, Gisbert Schneider,
  Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 2011, 11, 37–51.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3591
• Virtual screening: an endless staircase?,
  Gisbert Schneider,
  Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 2010, 9, 273–276.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3139

Also of Interest

• Video: Considering the Computer as a Partner in the Discovery Process,
  ChemistryViews 2022.
  Gisbert Schneider, Direktor Singapore-ETH Center, on perseverance in research, the power of the ignorant creativity of the youth, scaffold-hopping and frequent hitter

• Gmelin-Beilstein Memorial Medal 2022,
  ChemistryViews 2022.
  Gisbert Schneider honored for pioneering work on artificial intelligence approaches in drug design