Franz-Ulrich Hartl receives Otto Warburg Medal - Award for Research on Protein Folding

September 28, 2009

For his research on protein folding, Franz-Ulrich Hartl, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, has now been awarded with the Otto Warburg Medal. The prize was presented to him during the international meeting entitled “Signal Transduction and Disease”.

Proteins are the cell’s molecular building material and machineries, and they are involved in nearly every bioprocess of the cell. For his research on protein folding Franz-Ulrich Hartl, a director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, has now been awarded with the Otto Warburg Medal. The institute is located in Martinsried in the outskirts of Munich in Germany. The prize was presented to him in Aachen during the international meeting entitled “Signal Transduction and Disease”. Based on his research, an important field in biology and medicine was founded.

Among other things, Professor Hartl was able to prove that special protein complexes (Chaperones) are responsible for the correct folding of proteins. Only when the proteins are folded correctly, can they fulfil their biological tasks. Problems in protein folding can lead to severe neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson. Defective protein folding also plays a role in the process of aging.

The Otto Warburg Medal is regarded as the highest award for biochemists and molecular biologists in Germany. It has been awarded by the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie, GBM) since 1963. Since 2007, the award is associated with a prize money amounting to 25,000 euros, sponsored by QIAGEN.

Contact:

Anja Konschak

Public Relations

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

Am Klopferspitz 18

82152 Martinsried

Phone: ++49/89-8578-2824

E-Mail: konschak@biochem.mpg.de

www.biochem.mpg.de

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