Dr. Carmen Birchmeier awarded the Leibniz Prize
Developmental biologist and gene researcher Dr. Carmen Birchmeier from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Berlin-Buch has just won the most valuable award of the German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. Birchmeier and a further eleven researchers were also honoured in the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Scientists who depend on equipment for their research get 1.55 million Euro (3 million German marks) each, so does Dr. Birchmeier, while scientists engaged in theoretical research receive 775,000 Euro (1.5 million German marks) each. The prize is awarded for a period of five years.
Dr. Birchmeier’s main research interests center on molecular biology and mammalian embryo and organ development. She is particulary interested in signal transmission which is of critical importance for communication between cells during development. The ability of cells to maintain a continuous dialogue with each other and coordinate their functions is also fundamentally important for sustaining all the key functions that are essential to human and animal life. A breakdown in the communication pathways
can lead to severe developmental problems in the embryo and result in serious conditions in the fully developed animal.
Dr. Birchmeier and her research group use so-called “knock-out” mice. Certain selected genes are switched off in such animals, which allows to identify their role in animal models. Dr. Birchmeier studies the function of a range of growth factors. The internationally renowned researcher was able to identify some of these factors as key role players in the development of the nervous system and muscle. The research findings of Dr. Birchmeier and her team have been published in internationally recognized
scientific journals.
Carmen Birchmeier-Kohler was born in Waldshut, Germany and studied at the Federal Technical University (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland. She then worked at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the USA and the Max Delbrück Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Cologne. In 1995, she moved to the MDC, one of the 14 research institutes that make up the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
The Leibniz Program was set up in 1985 with the aim of providing outstanding researchers ideal working conditions. To date, the DFG has awarded this prize to 197 researchers and the current prizewinners were selected from 128 proposals.
Barbara Bachtler
Press and Public Affairs
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