Richard Dennis Di Marchi (at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA) and Matthias Tschoep (at Ludvig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany) are awarded the Rolf Luft Award 2026 for groundbreaking scientific contribution in diabetes and obesity, with basic research leading to important clinical implications with the Short motivation:

for advances in peptide chemistry and the development of novel dual and triple agonists for the treatment of diabetes and obesity.

Extended motivation

Professors Richard DiMarchi and Matthias Tschöp discovered a new class of drugs with unprecedented efficacy in treating diabetes and obesity. Several versions of these so-called gut hormone poly-agonists have advanced through clinical trials. One class representative, with the same active peptide ingredient named tirzepatide advanced by Eli Lilly, has already been FDA approved for treating type 2 diabetes in 2022 and for obesity in 2023 as “Mounjaro” . Treatment of obese patients with tirzepatide decreased patients’ body weight more than 20%, an excess weight where obesity is typically defined. This level of weight lowering had previously only been possible with gastric bypass surgery. The discovery and validation of these highly efficient drugs for obesity have accomplished a transformative breakthrough, which provides a path for reversing the obesity pandemic. Additionally, it has set a direction in drug discovery for complex diseases when there is no effective therapy and more than one integrated mechanism in action might prove equally effective as demonstrated in obesity.

The award ceremony and prize lecture will be held on September 10th, 2026, in Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet (Solna).

Photo source: Karolinska Institutet