2 / 2023 // LEOPOLDINA / NEWS 7
NEW CLASS II MEMBERS – LIFE SCIENCES
The newly elected Class II Members for Life Sciences in 2019 , 2020 , 2021 and 2022 received their certificates in April . The photo shows Leopoldina President Gerald Haug ML ( centre front ) and the new Members ( from left to right ): Anna Köttgen ML , Jörn Piel ML , Tina Romeis ML , Michael Boutros ML , Andreas Peschel ML , Patrick Baeuerle ML , Kai-Uwe Eckardt ML , Hans-Georg Rammensee ML , Robert Grosse ML , Charlotte Förster ML , Sonja-Verena Albers ML , Claudia Höbartner ML , Ulrich Technau ML , Katalin Karikó ML , Ivo Feußner ML , Johannes Hermann ML , Christian Fankhauser ML and Wulf Amelung ML .
Image : Markus Scholz | Leopoldina
Franz-Ulrich Hartl awarded the Schleiden Medal
Leopoldina honour for fundamental insights into the function and effect of chaperones
Biochemist Franz-Ulrich Hartl ML has been awarded the Schleiden Medal by the German National Academy of Sciences . The Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried , Germany received the award for his work of decribing the function of chaperones .
Chaperones are a class of proteins which act as molecular “ chaperones ” of the cell . This means that they help other proteins to fold correctly when they are exposed to fever or stress . This is why they are also referred to as heat shock proteins . Such unfavourable conditions often lead to misfolding . Chaperones in the eye lens ensure that the protein mix in the lens remains clear and translucent . If this mechanism fails , the lens becomes cloudy . As a result , people develop cataracts . “ Protein folding is the last step of transferring information to a functioning molecule ”, said Hartl in his speech at the awards ceremony .
Misfolding is a significant factor in
Franz-Ulrich Hartl talks about chaperones .
Image : Markus Scholz | Leopoldina
ageing and the development of age-related diseases . Hartl and his research group are investigating the influence of chaperones in neurodegenerative diseases such as Chorea Huntington ’ s and Parkinson ’ s disease . It has already been shown in lab experiments that chaperones “ can reverse the potentially dangerous clumping of proteins or prevent their formation .”
Before Franz-Ulrich Hartl was appointed Director of the Max Plank Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried / Germany in 2002 , he was an Associate Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ( Chevy Chase / USA ). He has received several awards for his research , including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2002 , the Otto Warburg Medal in 2009 , and the Lasker Award in 2011 . Since 2022 he has directed the Advanced Grant Project “ INSITUFOLD – In situ analysis of chaperone mediated protein folding and stability ” of the European Research Council ( ERC ). His insights into chaperones and protein folding are currently taken as standard in biology textbooks . Franz-Ulrich Hartl has been a Member of Leopoldina since 2002 in the Section : Genetics / Molecular Biology and Cell Biology .
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Schleiden Medal