idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instanz:
Teilen: 
21.01.2010 12:08

Berlin Science Award for Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky of MDC

Barbara Bachtler Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC) Berlin-Buch

    Systems biologist Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch in Germany has been named recipient of the Science Award of the Governing Mayor of Berlin in recognition of his "outstanding research achievements, the implementation of which can contribute to solutions for problems relevant to science and society". The award is endowed with 40 000 euros and goes to the MDC, the institution where the research was carried out. The Young Scientist Award went to Dr. Vera Beyer, Free University of Berlin. Both awards were presented during the opening ceremony of Science Year 2010 in the Berlin Concert House.

    Nikolaus Rajewsky is Professor of systems biology at the MDC and the Charité in Berlin-Buch, and head of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) of the MDC. Since 2008, he is also a Global Distinguished Professor of Biology at New York University.

    His current research focus, systems biology, combines a wide spectrum of disciplines such as molecular biology, biochemistry, mathematics and physics. Systems biology investigates biological processes and their interaction in cells, tissues and organisms on the basis of experimental as well as statistical and mathematical approaches with the aim of understanding and predicting life's complex processes in quantitative terms.

    In this context Professor Rajewsky is investigating the function of microRNAs, small molecules that are composed of ribonucleic acid (RNA). He has been able to show that a single microRNA can control the formation of hundreds of different proteins and has thus confirmed that microRNAs regulate almost all important life processes in cells and organisms.

    For this reason, microRNAs are also of great importance for biomedical research, since with their help disease-specific processes can be elucidated and potentially treated in the future.

    Professor Rajewsky has also made important contributions regarding the function of microRNAs for metabolism, the immune system and embryonic development. In 2009 alone, his works were cited over 1,300 times in international journals - which in the scientific community indicates research of fundamental importance and highest quality.

    Close cooperation with universities and non-university institutions in Berlin
    The BIMSB of the MDC is supported with around 12 million euros start-up funding (2008-2010) by the German Federal Ministry of Research and the Berlin Senate.

    It will be expanded in the coming years and relocated to a new building on the new 'Life Science Campus' of Humboldt University (HU) in central Berlin, and will collaborate closely with the university- and non-university institutions in Berlin.

    Cooperation partners of the BIMSB are - aside from the Charité - the HU, the Free University (FU) and the Technical University (TU), the Leibniz Institute of Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) in Berlin-Buch, the MATHEON, the German Rheumatism Research Center as well as institutes of the Max Planck Society and the Helmholtz Association.

    Furthermore, in close collaboration with New York University, the BIMSB has created an international joint education and training program for PhD students. This collaboration strengthens modern interdisciplinary scientific training as well as health research and biotechnology in Berlin and complement existing capacities.

    The Science Award of the Governing Mayor of Berlin was awarded for the first time in 2008 and went to the mathematician Professor Martin Grötschel of the TU Berlin and the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB).

    Barbara Bachtler
    Press and Public Affairs
    Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
    Robert-Rössle-Straße 10; 13125 Berlin; Germany
    Phone: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 96
    Fax: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 33
    e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
    http://www.mdc-berlin.de/


    Weitere Informationen:

    http://www.mdc-berlin.de/en/research/research_teams/systems_biology_of_gene_regu...


    Bilder

    Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
    Biologie, Chemie, Medizin
    überregional
    Personalia, Wettbewerbe / Auszeichnungen
    Englisch


     

    Hilfe

    Die Suche / Erweiterte Suche im idw-Archiv
    Verknüpfungen

    Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.

    Klammern

    Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).

    Wortgruppen

    Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.

    Auswahlkriterien

    Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).

    Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).