News 2010 - Berliner Wissenschaftspreis
Nikolaus Rajewsky receives the Science Award of the Governing Mayor of Berlin
Nikolaus Rajewsky receives the Science Award of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, January 22nd 2010, in recognition of his “outstanding research achievements, the implementation of which can contribute to solutions for problems relevant to science and society” This honour and prize of 40,000 Euros for research activities at the MDC is bestowed in recognition of his services to the Berlin scientific community. It acknowledges his personal academic achievements in the fields of RNA and Developmental Biology and, in particular, his pivotal role in elucidating the function of microRNAs – the regulators of practically all important living processes from embryogenesis to metabolic activity and the immune system.
The prize furthermore recognises his scientific vision and drive in the establishment of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology. Conceived in 2007, and funded in May 2008, the Institute already comprises his own team alongside 4 new research groups in 2009 and two more joining in the course of this year.
The major aim of BIMSB is to decipher the ‘post-transcriptional regulatory code’ and to directly integrate it with other major cellular regulatory mechanisms, in particular transcriptional regulatory circuits, signal transduction pathways, protein-protein interaction networks and post-translational modifications.
BIMSB brings together scientists in the fields of Physics, Mathematics, Bioinformatics, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry in the search for systems wide answers to biological questions and has already been confirmed as an initiative of outstanding importance and global scientific significance by a team of international experts in the field. Central to this mission is the ongoing support of our Berlin scientific partners Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Charité – Univerisitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin as well as that of Berlin based research centers such as Matheon. Future plans foresee a new research location in Berlin-Mitte, which will house up to 30 research groups, high-end technology and scientific training programs. The Science Award of Berlin is a great acknowledgement and motivation for this initiative.