Otto Roth Award 2021

Dr. Elias Rawish is awarded for his outstanding doctoral thesis on "Prevention of diet-induced obesity by the AT1 receptor blocker telmisartan is associated with reduced lipotoxicity in the hypothalamus".

The project was supervised by Professor Walter Raasch at the university`s Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology.
In collaboration with Dr. Lars Kuerschner at the Life and Medical Sciences Institute in Bonn the study could show that Angiotensin-II receptor blocker Telmisartan protects from diet induced obesity, which is thought to correlate with hypothalamic lipotoxicity and inflammation.
The results suggest a participation of Telmisartan`s weight reduction effect in a cerebral machanism, so that concepts for an increase of brain accessibility of this substance class might open new pathways for therapeutic options in the treatment of obesity.

The Otto Roth Award is the Medical Faculty`s annual award for an outstanding doctoral thesis donated by the Society of the University`s Alumni with an amount of 2.500 Euros.
It is named after Professor Otto Roth (1863-1944), the University`s first specialized surgeon. He became head of the Clinic of Surgery in Luebeck`s General Hospital (1897-1933) and collaborated with Heinrich Dräger (1847-1917) for the development of the world world-famous Dräger-Roth anaesthetic apparatus, allowing the thrive of modern anaesthesiology.