Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung Fusion for brain signals – 100,000 euro Heinrich Wieland Prize for Reinhard Jahn Mainz, Germany, August 5, 2014: Professor Reinhard Jahn has been selected as the recipient of the international Heinrich Wieland Prize for his paradigmatic studies on membrane fusion, synaptic vesicles, and neurotransmitter release – processes that occur when cells grow, 5. August 2014 transport substances, or signal. With the 100,000 euro prize the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation is honouring the pioneering achievements of the Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. To mark the 50th anniversary of the prize, the foundation will hold a scientific symposium and a festive award ceremony on October 21, 2014, in the Munich Residenz in Munich, Germany. Around 100 billion nerve cells are packed into the human brain, where they Dr. Claudia Walther constantly exchange signals. Despite their density, there remains a small gap Geschäftsführung between the individual cells. The signals are carried across this gap by molecules Schusterstraße 46-48 called neurotransmitters, which wait for their cue in the synaptic vesicles, the nerve 55116 Mainz cell’s tiny storage bubbles. To move into the gap, the neurotransmitters need to Telefon 06131 27 50 8 16 cross the cell membrane without breaching its integrity, as this could result in the Telefax 06131 27 50 8 11 death of the cell. The solution is elegant: the membranes of both the vesicle and the E-Mail:
[email protected] cell fuse seamlessly, releasing the neurotransmitters into the gap. This process of membrane fusion is not confined to the brain, but occurs in all body cells when they grow, transport substances, or release hormones.