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Heidelberg, 6 September 2006 Dr Frank Uhlmann of Cancer Research UK’s London
Research Institute is the winner of the 2006 EMBO Gold Medal. He receives
the award The EMBO Gold Medal is awarded annually to a young European researcher for outstanding contributions to research in the molecular life sciences. Widely regarded as the most prestigious award of its kind in Europe, the Gold Medal highlights the standards being reached by European researchers – bringing the very best of these to the attention of a global audience. German-born Frank Uhlmann is a perfect example of the “golden” career that sets apart all EMBO medal winners. After completing his PhD at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he spent three years in Kim Nasmyth’s group at Vienna’s Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), before taking up a position at the London Research Institute in 2000. During his time at IMP, Uhlmann combined novel techniques in biochemistry, cell biology and genetics to uncover the trigger for one of the most significant events in the life of eukaryotic cells – mitosis, the process whereby cells divide and split their duplicated genomes between two daughter cells. He found that a protein, now called “separase”, cuts cohesive links between the duplicated chromosomes, triggering their movement towards the daughter cells. Unravelling mechanisms like these is key to understanding how mistakes in mitosis can lead to cancer – knowledge that could eventually lead to the development of new strategies for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Kim Nasmyth’s praise for Uhlmann’s work during his time
at the IMP is unequivocal: Uhlmann has continued to put these qualities to good use since joining the London Research Institute. As Head of the Chromosome Segregation Laboratory, he has built on his earlier discoveries – defining modes of separase regulation and uncovering other ways in which the protein orchestrates intricate processes during mitosis and ensures that separated chromosomes move away from each other successfully. His group has also gone on to decipher the role of another crucial protein, called “cohesin”, on a genome-wide scale. Richard Treisman, Director of the London Research Institute, is certainly
convinced of Uhlmann’s abilities: Uhlmann has published over 40 papers, a number of these in high-impact journals such as Nature, Cell or Science. In addition to the EMBO Gold Medal, he has received several other awards including the 2005 Hooke Medal from the British Society for Cell Biology. In 2002, he was selected for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme, a highly competitive programme renowned for its scientific excellence. On hearing the news of the EMBO Gold Medal, Frank Uhlmann said: The EMBO Gold Medal and an award of 10,000 euro will be presented on 15 October 2006 at the EMBO Members Meeting, Frontiers of Molecular Biology, in Sheffield, UK. Read
more about Frank Uhlmann’s research
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in recognition of a decade of extraordinary work that has revolutionised
our understanding of the cell cycle and opened the door to new possibilities
in cancer treatment,
said
EMBO Executive Director, Frank Gannon.
