Ralph Fingerhut

Recipient of the Robert Guthrie Award 2023

After studying chemistry at the University of Bonn (Germany), Dr Ralph Fingerhut specialized on biochemistry in the group of Prof. Konrad Sandhoff with focus on lysosomal storage disorders. He received his PhD from the University of Würzburg (Germany) for his work on peroxisomal disorders, especially Refsum Disease, in the group of Prof. Ernst Conzelmann.
Subsequently he was head of the newborn screening and metabolic laboratory at the University Children`s Hospital, Hamburg Eppendorf from 1995-1999. From 1999-2008 he introduced expanded newborn screening by tandem mass spectrometry in Munich, together with Prof. Roscher and Prof. Olgemöller.
In 2008 he moved to  the University Children´s Hospital Zurich (Switzerland), where he introduced screening for cystic fibrosis (CF), and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). In 2021 he returned to Germany, where he is now the director of the newborn screening laboratory, at SYNLAB MVZ Weiden, and is additionally associated professor for clinical biochemistry at the Technical University Deggendorf (Germany).
Dr Fingerhut has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, and several book chapters.

Dr Fingerhut is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Neonatal Screening, founded in 2015. This journal has become one of the top journals in this field, with an impact factor of 4.0 and a cite score of 6.7. He is also an active reviewer and scientific board member of several other scientific journals, and works also as reviewer for the German Akkreditation Body (DAkkS) for newborn screening and clinical chemistry.
He is a member of several scientific societies in the field of neonatal screening and metabolic disorders, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), and a member of the CLSI Expert Panel on Newborn Screening.