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Matthias Hentze receives Centenary Award
The Biochemical Society recognises Hentze’s contributions in RNA Biology
Each year the Biochemical Society awards the Centenary Award to an eminent bioscientist for excellence in their field as well as commitment to building, supporting, and nurturing talent within the scientific community. EMBL Director and Senior Scientist at EMBL Heidelberg Matthias Hentze receives the 2023 award for his contributions to understanding the interplay between RNA-binding proteins and RNA.
The prize is endowed with £3000 and the Centenary Medal. Professor Hentze will also deliver a lecture to share his research during a Biochemical Society meeting or webinar.
Hentze’s research focusses on RNA-binding proteins and their function. With colleagues, he discovered the first regulatory element in mature mammalian mRNA in 1987. After joining EMBL in 1989, he has led fundamental work to understand the regulation of mRNA fate by RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs. During the past decade, Hentze and his team have developed new technologies to discover the existence of hundreds of previously unrecognised RNA-binding proteins. This led them to discover riboregulation as a means by which RNA can directly control the functions of proteins, impacting broadly on cell biology in health and disease.
Hentze co-founded and is co-Director of the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit, an interinstitutional translational research unit with the University of Heidelberg that was the first of EMBL’s many partnerships with national research institutions.
