EMBL alumni in action: Norbert Kraut
From early research days at EMBL to developing a novel cancer drug, an alumnus discusses his approach to hard-to-treat lung cancer
When EMBL alumnus Norbert Kraut walks into a cancer conference today, it’s often with exciting updates for the cancer community.
Kraut, now a senior executive scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim, has spent the last decade leading large international oncology research teams. One of their major achievements: a new HER2-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor for a rare form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which is particularly aggressive in women and non-smokers. The drug recently received accelerated approval in the United States, China, and Japan.
“It’s one of my proudest moments in science,” he said. “To see patients who were told they had only months to live, now back with their families, returning to work, even running half marathons again.”
Tackling a deadly cancer subtype
Lung cancer remains the world’s leading cause of cancer death. A small but important subset of NSCLC is driven by HER2 mutations – approximately 40,000 new diagnoses per year worldwide, often in people who have never smoked. These tumours tend to spread quickly, especially to the brain, and respond poorly to standard chemo- and immunotherapy.
“For these patients, there were basically no effective targeted options,” Kraut explained. “The medical need had not been addressed.”
Boehringer Ingelheim’s teams set out to design a drug that would effectively target HER2 mutations that drive the cancer, spare closely related targets that cause undesired secondary effects, be administered orally, so patients could take the medicine at home, and work in patients with brain metastases.
Over eight years, through what Kraut describes as ‘a detective game in drug design’, the team combined structural biology, medicinal chemistry, and sophisticated cancer models to create a molecule that fits the unusually tight HER2 binding pocket created by these mutations.
From lab to patients – and a 70% response rate
Clinical trials began in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. Even in early stages, investigators reported that tumours were shrinking at low doses of the drug. The final study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that in approximately 70% of patients with HER2-mutant NSCLC – many of whom had already received other therapies – tumours shrank significantly. Trial participants reported milder side effects than with many existing treatments, and the once-daily tablet meant fewer hospital visits.
As oncologists have referred to the drug as a ‘game changer’ for this patient group, trials are now exploring the drug for first-line therapy (earlier in the treatment course), adjuvant use directly after surgery to prevent or delay recurrence, and for other HER2-driven cancers beyond those found in the lung.
The EMBL training that shaped an industry leader
Kraut attributes the roots of his success to his days as a PhD student at EMBL Heidelberg in the 1990s. There, he worked with Thomas Graf on elucidating key molecular mechanisms of tumourigenesis.
“At EMBL I learned a collaborative, collegial way of doing science,” he recalled. “There was a lot of freedom, a very international environment, and constant networking. That spirit has stayed with me throughout my career.”
After a postdoc in Seattle, he joined Boehringer Ingelheim, where he became Global Head of Cancer Research, responsible for strategy, a research portfolio, and a large international team of scientists across geographies, as well as a broad range of biotech and academic partnerships. Under his leadership, the company has advanced multiple cancer drugs to patients, including therapies for other lung cancer subtypes and a range of solid cancers.
Kraut also continued to build on the EMBL network. A long-term collaboration with fellow EMBL alumnus Giulio Draetta and his team at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, for example, provided key translational models for precision oncology, including work that contributed to the HER2 inhibitor programme.
“Many of the critical ideas and technologies in our pipeline have roots in fundamental research,” he said. “Institutes like EMBL and the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna (where Kraut is on its Scientific Advisory Board) are driven by curiosity and create the concepts and tools we then translate into novel medicines.”
Driven by patients and scientific excellence
Kraut’s motivation is deeply personal. Early in his career, his postdoctoral mentor, Harold Weintraub, and later his mother, both died from aggressive brain tumours.
“Those experiences stayed with me,” he said. “For the past 20 years, my main driver has been to make a real difference for cancer patients – to turn cutting-edge science into therapies that change the trajectory of their disease.”
That goal now extends beyond oncology. In his current role, Kraut works across therapeutic areas, from cancer and lung disease to cardiometabolic disorders, neuroscience, and emerging fields. There, he helps to identify and advance the most promising therapeutic concepts worldwide.
EMBL alumni: seeding impact far beyond EMBL’s walls
Kraut is one of more than 11,000 EMBL alumni worldwide, many of whom now hold leadership roles in academia, industry, clinical research, and policy. Their work shapes how life sciences are conducted across Europe and beyond.
“I see EMBL as a blueprint for how to do collaborative, excellent science,” he says. “The training and network I gained here have been crucial at every step – from my first industry jobs to leading global research teams and bringing new cancer drugs to patients.”
