15 Awards of Excellence

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awards of excellence

❚ EMBO Members

Baden-Württemberg Research Prize Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007, 2007 Prince of Asturias Award for Dieter Wolf, of the Institute for Biochemistry at the Nobel Foundation Scientifi c and Technical Research, University of Stuttgart, is co-recipient of the Baden- Sir Martin Evans, of Cardiff University, receives this The Prince of Asturias Foundation Württemberg Research Prize. Prof. Wolf receives the award along with Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies Peter Lawrence, of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular prize for his research, spanning over 30 years, for for their discoveries of principles for introducing Biology in Cambridge, and Ginés Morata, of the groundbreaking results in the area of regulated pro- specifi c gene modifi cations in mice by the use of CSIC-UAM Centre of Molecular Biology in Madrid, tein degradation in cells. embryonic stem cells. have been jointly awarded this prize. Their pioneering research provides information on the phenomenon of organ and tissue regeneration and on programmed Diplôme d’Honneur, Feltrinelli Prize 2007, cell death, also known as apoptosis, which are indis- Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) National Academy of Lincei pensable in the study of ageing and cancer. Frank Gannon, Director General of Science The Feltrinelli Prize 2007 for Biological Sciences has been awarded to Emilia Chiancone, Professor Foundation Ireland (SFI), was awarded the Diplôme Prize of the President of the Republic, of Molecular Biology in the Medical Faculty of the d’Honneur in July 2007 at the FEBS Congress in National Academy of Lincei University of Rome “La Sapienza”, for her studies on Vienna in honour of his “exceptional contribution” to Giuseppe Macino, Professor of Biology in the the evolution of allosteric regulation. European science and to FEBS activities. Medical Faculty at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, has been awarded this prize for his Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, EMBO Gold Medal 2007, discoveries on the mechanism of gene silencing by European Molecular Biology Organization German Research Foundation micro RNAs. Magdalena Götz, of the Institute of Stem Cell Jan Löwe, of the Medical Research Council’s Research (ISF) and Detlef Weigel, of the Max Planck Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, Institute for Developmental Biology, are recipients of receives this award in recognition of his landmark The Royal Society the 2007 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the highest work elucidating the structure and function of pro- Ottoline Leyser, of the Department of Biology at the honour awarded in German research. teins involved in bacterial cell division. University of York, receives this award in recognition of her groundbreaking work on plant hormones and Lautenschläger Research Prize 2007, how they control plant development. EMET Prize in Bio-Chemistry, University of Heidelberg AMN Foundation Matthias Hentze and Andreas Kulozik, received Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, Yosef Yarden, of the Weizmann Institute of Science this award for their joint research work on distur- The Wiley Foundation in Rehovot, Israel, receives this award for his origi- bances to the processing and control of the trans- F. Ulrich Hartl, of the Max Planck Institute for nal and signifi cant contribution to unravelling the mission of genetic information within the cell, the so- Biochemistry receives this award along with Arthur biochemical mechanism in the development and called RNA metabolism, in frequent genetic diseases L. Horwich, for their elucidation of the molecular multiplication of the cancerous cell, and particularly affecting haematopoiesis and blood coagulation. machinery that guides proteins into their proper the role of growth factor receptors and signal trans- functional shape, thereby preventing the accumula- mitters. Leopoldina Research Prize 2007, tion of protein aggregates that underlie many dis- The German Academy of Sciences eases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Erwin Schroedinger Prize, Nikolaus Pfanner, University of Freiburg, received 2006/7 Wolf Foundation Prize in Chemistry, Austrian Academy of Sciences this prize for signifi cant contributions to the study Wolf Foundation Thomas Jenuwein, of the Research Institute of of intracellular protein sorting and translocation Ada Yonath, from the Department of Structural Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, receives this and in particular for his research on mitochondrial Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science has prize in honour of his outstanding contributions biogenesis. to molecular biology. The discoveries of Prof. Dr. been jointly awarded this prize with George Feher, for ingenious structural discoveries of the ribosomal Jenuwein and his team are of major signifi cance to Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine 2007, machinery of peptide-bond formation and the light- the rapidly expanding fi eld of Epigenetics. Louis Jeantet Foundation driven primary processes in photosynthesis. Venki Ramakrishnan, of the Medical Research ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, receives The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) was awarded this prize in recognition of his research on the the ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award in July ribosome. 2007 for its outstanding achievements in the area of Translational Research in Breast Cancer. René Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine 2007, Bernards, Head of the Molecular Carcinogenesis Louis Jeantet Foundation Division of the Institute, and Dr Laura van ‘t Veer, Steven West, of Cancer Research UK’s London Head of the Molecular Pathology Division, received Research Institute, has been awarded this prize for the award on the institute’s behalf. his pioneering work on DNA repair mechanisms.

❚ EMBO Young Investigators

Charles Albert Shull Award, Eppendorf Young European Investigator Award Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award, American Society of Plant Biologists Luca Scorrano, of the Dulbecco-Telethon Institute, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Samuel C. Zeeman, of ETH Zurich in Switzerland, was the 2006 recipient of this award. The Eppendorf Nektarios Tavernarakis, has been granted a receives this award for pioneering research lead- Award for Young European Investigators is presented Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from ing to the discovery of new proteins and pathways to young scientists for outstanding biomedical the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. in starch synthesis and degradation in leaves. This research based on methods of molecular biology. award is presented to a scientist under the age of 40 for outstanding investigations in the ﬁ eld of plant European Young Investigator Awards (EURYI), biology. European Science Foundation Terence Strick, of CNRS’ Jacques Monod Institute, 2008 Colworth Medal of the Biochemical Society has been selected to receive one of this year’s EURYI The prestigious 2008 Colworth Medal has been awards for his work on single-molecule studies of awarded to John Rouse, a principal investigator biological nano-machines. in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee.