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| Heidelberg,
Monday, 25 February 2000 |
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| DFG Leibniz Prize to Matthias Hentze |
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Last
Friday the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG]
announced that a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize,
one of its most prestigious research awards with
a value of three million German marks, will go
to Matthias Hentze at the European Molecular Biology
Laboratory [EMBL] in Heidelberg. Hentze is one
of 14 German researchers in the natural or social
sciences to receive the Leibniz Prize for the
year 2000. The prize is given for outstanding
achievements in science, and the funds are given
to support the work of a researcher's group, to
assist in forming collaborations particularly
in the international sphere, and to allow a researcher
to explore ideas which might otherwise lie dormant
because of a lack of funds.
Hentze, a 39-year-old molecular biologist with an MD, is a strong proponent of strengthening ties between the fields of molecular biology
and medicine. Although the award "caught him completely by surprise," and
he wants to consider the most effective options for its use, he sees it
as a great opportunity to do something significant for the growing field
of molecular medicine.
Candidates for the Leibniz award must be nominated
by the faculty of universities or Max-Planck institutes,
former prize winners, or members of a DFG committee;
Hentze was nominated by Prof. Wolfgang Stremmel,
of the Clinic of the University of Heidelberg.
"Hentze's research has always been characterized
by high creativity," Stremmel says. "Instead of
following the mainstream of current scientific
trends, he has been a pioneer in a relatively
unknown area and his results have been important
in calling attention to it." For ten years Hentze
has led an independent research team at the EMBL
in Heidelberg, an institute devoted to basic research
in molecular biology, supported by public research
monies from sixteen member states.
His own research as part of the EMBL Gene Expression Programme has been
directed at problems linked to genetic diseases, particularly in the area
of iron metabolism. Research by his group has led to insights into one
of the most common hereditary disorders in the Western world: hemochromatosis,
a disease which may affect as many as one out of every 250 people, and
which can result in liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and heart disease.
Gene Expression is chiefly concerned with how the information stored
in genes becomes transformed into the proteins which carry out most biological
activity within a cell. Most researchers in this field have devoted themselves
to studying how this flow of information is controlled within the cell
nucleus - how and when DNA is transcribed into RNA molecules, and how these
are cut-and-pasted into messenger RNA forms that can be sent out of the
nucleus and translated into proteins. Hentze has focused on another aspect
of the problem: the way that events outside the nucleus control gene expression.
"Ten years ago I made the decision to devote a significant part of my
life to this unexplored and underappreciated area," Hentze says. When he
committed himself to a systematic study of translation a decade ago, little
was known about whether these types of regulation played an important role
in cells. Since then the field has expanded into what Hentze calls a "gold
mine with relatively few miners."
The study of the regulation of translation has also given deep insights
into the way that cells respond to different amounts of iron. When iron
levels change, cells must change the repertoire of proteins they produce;
defects in the regulation machinery can lead to disease. Hentze's group
has been instrumental in explaining this mechanism. There are also other
links between an understanding of the translation process and medicine:
viruses such as Hepatitus B and C and the polio virus bring foreign RNA
into cells and can only replicate themselves by getting this RNA translated
in an unusual way. A deeper understanding of the way cells translate their
own RNAs may suggest ways to block viral translation without harming the
cell's own machinery.
Hentze stresses that prior support by the DFG has significantly contributed
to the success of his work. "A number of successful projects could not
have been carried out without that support, and I am also grateful that
they have been willing to sponsor work that is carried out at an international
organisation like the EMBL," Hentze says.
Hentze's award may also reflect the growing realization among molecular
biologists and clinicians that the overlap between their fields needs a
boost. The two disciplines have been steadily evolving towards each other:
the result has been applications such as gene therapy, the diagnosis of
hereditary diseases, and treatments for cancer. Projects to decipher the
entire sequence of the human genome are yielding more and more links between
genes and disease.
While the trend is universally acknowledged, there is still a gap betwen
the two fields, and Hentze is actively working on bridging it. His efforts
have been instrumental in making molecular medicine one of the main planks
of EMBL's next scientific programme, a plan of attack for the entire Laboratory
for the next five years. He has helped the Laboratory design plans for
a Medical Fellows initiative which should bring more MDs into the Laboratory.
As Dean of the International PhD
Programme, he also hopes to attract
MDs to do doctorate work in molecular biology at EMBL.
"The time is ripe," Hentze says, "to invest great effort in bringing
these disciplines much closer together, both on a national and a European
level."
Press Contacts
Russ Hodge
EMBL Information and Public Affairs Officer, European
Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse
1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 [0] 6221 387 452
E-mail: trista.dawson@embl.de |
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