Prizes & Awards

The UNIPRENEURS Initiative has recognized the entrepreneurial spirit of 20 professors, among them ECRC researcher Simone Spuler. As a co-founder of the startup MyoPax, she is pioneering stem cell technology to develop regenerative therapies for previously incurable muscle diseases.

Whether aggressive cancer cells can spread unchecked depends, to no small degree, on their cellular neighborhood. Fabian Coscia wants to analyze exactly what happens at the proteome level during this interaction. He has now been selected for a €1 million-plus grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to pursue this research.

There is more to cutting-edge research than pipettes and publications. It is often the inconspicuous everyday processes that influence success or failure. That's why employees who help shape the success of the Max Delbrück Center behind the scenes were once again honored at this year’s summer party.

Ten years ago, researchers at the Max Delbrück Center came up with an idea for producing synthetic fatty acids. They launched a spin-off company to develop a drug for inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Now the therapeutic agent will be tested in a clinical trial. The BMBF is providing a €2.5 million grant.

Biochemist and physician Leif S. Ludwig of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) and the Max Delbrück Center has been named a recipient of the 2023 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, as the German Research Foundation (DFG) announced on June 27th.

Partners in industry and research are aiming to optimise the diagnosis of cancer and other diseases with a novel microscopy technique. The QEED research project has been allocated a two-figure million sum in funding. ECRC scientist Hendrik Bartolomaeus is a member of the consortium.

Berlin-based research project MSTARS is entering its second round. Matthias Selbach and Fabian Coscia explain how the Max Delbrück Center is contributing, why the collaboration with Charité is so important, and how studying proteins in cells can help identify the best therapy for a patient.

Michael Potente wants to find out what makes blood vessels grow. For his work on the metabolic regulation of such growth, he has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Judah Folkman Award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization.

Chromatin factors are involved in regulating gene expression. If they do not function properly, this can result in neurological impairments. Ana Pombo and Alexander Kukalev are now receiving almost €400,000 from the DFG for a research project that aims to shed more light on how these factors work.

Leif S. Ludwig, a researcher at the Max Delbrück Center and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), will receive the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Young Investigator Award 2023 for a new method to analyze the formation of blood cells, as the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation announced today.