Award David M. Goldenberg receives Benedict Cassen Prize 2024
We congratulate our alumnus Prof. Dr David M. Goldenberg, who has been awarded the prestigious Benedict Cassen Prize 2024 as a leading expert in the field of radioimmunotherapy. The Cassen Prize is awarded every two years by the Education and Research Foundation (ERF) for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and recognizes outstanding scientific achievements and significant advances in nuclear medicine.
David M. Goldenberg, who completed his medical training at Heidelberg University, has advanced the development of radiopharmaceutical agents that make it possible to specifically identify and treat cancer cells. “It is a great honor to receive the Benedict Cassen Prize,” said the Heidelberg alumnus at the award ceremony in Toronto, Canada, in mid-2024. ”Over the past 50 years, I have witnessed the developments in the field of nuclear medicine, and I am very pleased that we can now precisely and selectively target cancer sites with radiopharmaceutical agents. These advances offer patients a new personalized and much more effective generation of therapies.”
David M. Goldenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Ukrainian and Polish immigrants. He demonstrated exceptional academic achievement at an early age and was awarded a Ford Foundation Early Entrance Scholarship at the age of 16. After completing his studies in biological sciences at the University of Chicago in 1958, he continued his education in Germany, where he graduated with a doctorate in medicine from the University of Heidelberg in 1966.
After further training in Erlangen, the physician returned to the USA. Among other things, he was Associate Research Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh and Professor of Pathology at the Chandler Medical Centre of the University of Kentucky. His scientific achievements are also evidenced by the more than 400 US patents of which he is the inventor. Particularly noteworthy is his role in the development of the active substance ‘sacituzumab govitecan’ (trade name Trodelvy), which is used in the treatment of metastasised and inoperable breast cancer. David M. Goldenberg has received numerous awards for his research, including the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award (1985 and 1992) and the Paul Aebersold Award of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (2005).
David M. Goldenberg is still closely associated with Ruperto Carola today. Among other things, the father of six is financially committed to the HAUS Scholarship Programme. This funding from the alumni association Heidelberg Alumni U.S. (HAUS) supports students resident in the USA who wish to enrol at Heidelberg University.
