September 21, 2024
FMI Science Prizes — winners 2024
On September 18-20, the FMI hosted its Annual Meeting, bringing together the institute’s entire scientific community in the iconic Gehry Building on the Novartis Campus in Basel. A key highlight of the event was the award ceremony for the FMI internal science prizes, celebrating achievements in the categories of creative thinking, outstanding PhD thesis and exceptional postdoc study.
ED FISCHER PRIZE
This prize honors an outstanding PhD thesis defended by an FMI student over the past year. It is named in memory of Edmond H. Fischer (1920–2021), Nobel Laureate in Medicine in 1992 and a long-serving member of the FMI Scientific Advisory Board.
Alexandra Bendel, a former PhD student in the Diss lab, was awarded the Ed Fischer Prize 2024 for her thesis titled “From Mutations to Meanings: Using Deep Mutational Scanning to understand sequence-function relationships through protein-protein interaction specificity”. Bendel is now a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Nicolas Thomä at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
During her PhD, Bendel investigated how proteins interact with each other, using advanced methods to study millions of these interactions. Her research impressed the committee because of its complexity, the amount of work involved, and Bendel's strong leadership in the project.
Learn more about research in the Diss lab
MAX BURGER PRIZE
The Max Burger Prize, awarded for an exceptional paper by a postdoctoral fellow from the previous year, is named in honor of Max M. Burger (1933–2019), who served as Director of the FMI from 1987 to 2001.
Luke Isbel, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Schübeler lab, was awarded the Max Burger Prize 2024 for his study titled “Readout of histone methylation by Trim24 locally restricts chromatin opening by p53”, which was published last year in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Isbel now leads the Molecular Epigenetics Laboratory at the University of Adelaide's South Australian Immunogenomics Cancer Institute in Australia.
Isbel's research revealed key mechanisms that regulate the activation of genes targeted by p53, a protein that protects DNA from stress or long-term damage by regulating the expression of numerous genes involved DNA repair, cell division and cell death. He approached p53 from the unique perspective of gene expression, demonstrating bold, unconventional thinking and a relentless drive to push this ambitious project forward, the committee said.
Learn more about research in the Schübeler lab
RUTH CHIQUET PRIZE
This prize honors scientists who have developed an innovative new method or tool that has made a significant impact in their field, demonstrating exceptional creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. It is named after Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann (1954–2015), an FMI group leader from 1985 to 2015, known for her pursuit of unconventional research topics that ultimately had major impacts on biomedical science.
This year, the Chiquet Prize was awarded to Tengjun Liu, Julia Gygax and Julian Rossbroich, three researchers in the Zenke lab, for their contribution to decoding brain signals using spiking neural networks. The committee was impressed by the elegance of using artificial spiking neural networks that ‘speak the same language’ as the brain and by the translational potential for brain-machine interfaces.
Learn more about research in the Zenke lab
Alexandra Bendel, recipient of the Ed Fischer Prize 2024
Luke Isbel, who joined virtually from Adelaide, Australia, recipient of the Max Burger Prize 2024
From left to right: Julia Gygax, Tengjun Liu and Julian Rossbroich, recipients of the Ruth Chiquet Prize 2024
FMI ANNUAL MEETING 2024
This year's FMI Annual Meeting was held in Basel, bringing together over 200 FMI scientists and several colleagues from Novartis, as well as members of the FMI Scientific Advisory Board. The program featured a series of scientific presentations by FMI researchers, alongside a keynote lecture delivered by Rui Costa, who studies the brain circuits that underlie movement at the Allen Institute in Seattle. Attendees also participated in two engaging poster sessions. The last afternoon was dedicated to recreational activities, offering options such as bouldering and guided tours of Basel’s renowned museums. The meeting concluded with a gala dinner, followed by an evening of lively entertainment and the traditional 'follies'.
