BIOSS scientist receives two international awards

The American Protein Society has selected Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Pfanner for its highest honor, the Stein and Moore Award. The award ceremony will be held in July 2014 in San Diego. In January 2014, the researcher, member of the Cluster of Excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies at the University of Freiburg also received the Wilhelm Feldberg Prize for the promotion of scientific exchange between England and Germany in Cambridge.

Both awards recognize Pfanner for his research on the formation of the mitochondria. With the help of his team, he demonstrated that the powerhouses of the cell consist of more than 1000 different proteins and discovered how they reach their place of work in the mitochondria. Along the way, he found molecular gatekeepers, sluices, and traffic policemen that all work together as complex machines to control the assembly of the cellular power plants, particularly the nervous system and the muscular system. “The awards are the work of my entire team of outstanding scientists,” says Pfanner.

He serves as professor and director at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Medicine and is a member of the Cluster of Excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies and the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine of the University of Freiburg. He has already been awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the Max Planck Research Prize, and the Baden-Württemberg State Research Prize for his work.

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Contact:

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Pfanner

Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

University of Freiburg

Phone: +49 (0)761/203-5223

E-Mail: nikolaus.pfanner@biochemie.uni-freiburg.de