Prizes & Awards

They have their sights set on serious diseases: Gabriele G. Schiattarella analyzes mechanisms of heart failure, Simon Haas wants to improve immunotherapies for leukemia and Michael Sigal would like to prevent gastrointestinal diseases. Now, the ERC is awarding the researchers with a Starting Grant.

With funding from the Alzheimer’s Association, Melissa Birol hopes to uncover the molecular causes of age-related dementia. Her hypothesis is that a fatal interaction of tau and ApoE proteins prevents neurons from being supplied with sufficient fat, triggering their death.

Sofia Forslund, Friedemann Paul and Nikolaus Rajewsky are among the Highly Cited Researchers 2022. Each year, the company Clarivate lists researchers who have demonstrated significant influence in their field. In addition, Research.com has ranked Klaus Rajewsky as one of the world’s best scientists.

Klaus Rajewsky has received two awards recognizing his lifetime achievement in science. Both came in October: The German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology awarded him honorary membership at a ceremony in Vienna, while Masaryk University awarded him the Mendel Medal in Brno, Czech Republic.

And a celebration it was: After two years of virtual graduation ceremonies due to Covid-19, doctoral students at the Max Delbrück Center were once again able to receive their graduation certificates live on stage.

With its "Back to the roots" Lab, the Max Delbrück Center aims to enable young international researchers to become ambassadors for Research in Germany in their home countries. It is one of the winners of the DFG Community Prize.

The newly appointed scientific director of the Max Delbrück Center is recognized for her pioneering stem cell work in diabetes. Her team studies the development and function of insulin-producing beta cells and aims to generate beta cells from stem cells, paving the way for therapeutic applications.

Errors in cellular RNA metabolism are dangerous for nerve cells. For her work in this area, Marina Chekulaeva has now been accepted into the DFG Heisenberg program.

Simon Haas receives the Young Investigator Award 2022 of the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN). Haas leads the research group Systemic Hematology, Stem Cells & Precision Medicine in the joint research focus "Single Cell Approaches for Personalized Medicine" of BIH, Charité and MDC.

For his outstanding doctoral thesis on sexual communication in fruit flies, the Max Planck Society awards an Otto Hahn Medal to neuroscientist Mohammed Khallaf Ali. At the MDC, he works in the Lewin lab and is dedicated to the sensation of touch and pain in animals.