Richard Burt studied Chemistry at the University of Missouri and graduated from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 1984. He is chief of the division of immunotherapy at the department of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Burt pioneered the use of blood stem cells to treat autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis, and performed the first autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplants for numerous immune-mediated diseases. He is the leader of randomized, controlled stem cell trials currently ongoing for the treatment of systemic sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.

The Albrecht Hasinger Lecture, which is funded by the Schering Stiftung, takes place in conjunction with the award ceremony of the Avrion Mitchison Prize of the Schering Stiftung at the German Rheumatism Research Center (DRFZ). The prize goes to Dr. Quirin Hammer from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.

Background information about blood stem cells can be found at the website of the initiative EuroStemCell.