idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Epigenetics pioneer honored for research on gene regulation and cancer
His research on cancer gives hope for new drugs against leukaemia. They are grounded in Professor Tony Kouzarides’ breakthroughs in the field of epigenetics, that studies cellular mechanisms regulating which pieces of our genetic information are active. For his pioneering and dogma changing discoveries in epigenetics as well as their impact on cancer, Tony Kouzarides, Gurdon Institute, Cambridge, UK, is awarded the 50,000 euro Heinrich Wieland Prize 2013 by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation. Former awardees include the freshly announced Nobel laureate James E. Rothman as well as three other Nobel laureates.
The ceremony, together with a talk by the Tony Kouzarides, will take place in Munich on October 10th, 2013.
Our genetic information is written in about three billion characters of overall two meters length. It is tightly coiled around proteins in the cell’s nucleus, with the whole complex of DNA and its packing material called chromatin. Which sections of the genetic information cells use – and when – is crucial for development and often defines the fine line between health and disease. About 20 years ago, Tony Kouzarides was one of the first to show that so-called epigenetic modifications of the packing material of DNA can regulate which genes are active and which are not. “Tony Kouzarides has identified numerous proteins that modify chromatin and has furthered our understanding of these important processes fundamentally and repeatedly over the years” says Professor Wolfgang Baumeister, chair of the selection committee of the Heinrich Wieland Prize. “As one of the internationally recognized leaders in epigenetics, he has been at the forefront from the beginning: from the early discovery of one of the first chromatin modifying enzymes in 1996 to the demonstration in 2011 that the small molecule inhibitor I-BET is of potential use for the treatment of leukaemia.”
Over the years, Tony Kouzarides has not only identified several proteins that modify chromatin, but also their mode of action and the pathways in which they are involved. Furthermore, he has shown that several of these modifications are associated with cancer when not regulated correctly. Targeting these modifications, he is aiming to find new drugs against cancer. The drug I-BET is one promising candidate. Working with mice and human cell lines, Tony Kouzarides demonstrated that I-BET has a strong potential against certain kinds of leukaemia. The I-BET drug is currently in clinical trials, underlining the applicability of Tony Kouzarides’ work to finding new therapies. The clinical potential of I-BET gives hope for the development of epigenetic therapies against cancers.
Professor Tony Kouzarides is a Royal Society Professor at the University of Cambridge and Deputy Director of the Gurdon Institute, Cambridge, UK. He receiced his PhD in virology at the University of Cambridge and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology where he was already set on studying cancer. He then went to NYU Medical Center in New York, working on cancer-inducing genes. He returned to Cambridge in 1989 to lead a research group at the Gurdon Institute where he has been ever since. Besides his busy academic career, Tony Kouzarides founded the drug discovery company “Chroma Therapeutics” and the publicly traded antibody reagent company Abcam plc. He is also the founder of the Spanish charity “Vencer al Cancer” (Conquer Cancer), raising public funds for cancer research.
The international Heinrich Wieland Prize honours outstanding research on biologically active molecules and systems in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and physiology as well as their clinical importance (www.heinrich-wieland-prize.de). The 50,000-euro prize is named after Heinrich Otto Wieland (1877-1957), a Nobel laureate and professor of chemistry at the University of Munich. The Heinrich Wieland Prize has been awarded annually since 1964. Former awardees include Nobel laureates Michael S. Brown, Joseph L. Goldstein, and Bengt Samuelsson as well as the freshly announced Nobel laureate in Medicine James E. Rothman. Since 2011, the prize is endowed by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the promotion of the medical, biological, chemical, and pharmaceutical sciences (www.boehringer-ingelheim-stiftung.de).
The public award ceremony takes place on October 10th, 2013 from 2 to 4 PM at
Buchner Auditorium of LMU Munich
Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, LMU Munich,
Butenandtstr. 5-13, House F, Room FU 1.013
81377 Munich, Germany
Prof. Kouzarides will give a lecture on „Epigenetic regulation of genes and cancer“.
Members of the media are welcome.
Please RSVP at kirsten.achenbach@bifonds.de.
Contact:
Dr. Anja Hoffmann
Heinrich Wieland Prize
Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations
Schusterstr. 46-48
55116 Mainz/Germany
Tel. +49 (0)6131 / 27 50 815
hwp@boehringer-ingelheim-stiftung.de
Kirsten Achenbach
Communications
Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations
Schusterstr. 46-48
55116 Mainz/Germany
Tel. +49 (0)6131 / 27 50 816
kirsten.achenbach@bifonds.de
http://www.heinrich-wieland-prize.de
http://www.boehringer-ingelheim-stiftung.de
http://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk
Heinrich Wieland awardee 2013: Professor Tony Kouzarides
Quelle: (c) T. Kouzarides
Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
Journalisten, Wissenschaftler
Biologie, Chemie, Medizin
überregional
Buntes aus der Wissenschaft, Wettbewerbe / Auszeichnungen
Englisch
Heinrich Wieland awardee 2013: Professor Tony Kouzarides
Quelle: (c) T. Kouzarides
Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.
Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).
Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.
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).
