Dr. Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Team Leader of the Laboratory for Autoimmune Diseases at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine in Yokohama, was awarded second prize in the 49th Baelz Prize (FY2012) along with Senior Scientist Yuta Kochi, Senior Scientist Akari Suzuki, and Senior Visiting Scientist Ryo Yamada from his team, and Visiting Scientist Yukinori Okada of the Laboratory for Statistical Analysis.

This prize was established in 1964 by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, considering the long historical relationship between Germany and Japan, to promote collaboration between the two countries in the area of medicine, deepen the friendship between the two countries, and support medical research in Japan.

The prize is awarded based on papers that are submitted each year. The theme this year was "autoimmune diseases," and the award was given to Dr. Yamamoto and his collaborators for a paper entitled, "From Genetics to Functional Insights into Autoimmune diseases."