Jan Löwe WINS EMBO Gold Medal 2007
EMBO Gold Medal Winner revolutionised understanding of the bacterial cytoskeleton

At the young age of 10, Jan Löwe knew he wanted to be a scientist. By 16, he had focussed his goal to become a molecular biologist. This early determination helped Jan build a stellar career, leading to his most recent accolade as the 2007 winner of the EMBO Gold Medal. Jan receives the award in recognition of his landmark work elucidating the structure and function of proteins involved in bacterial cell division.

Jan knew molecular biology was the career for him after a teen-age summer spent working with plant biologists at the Plant Breeding Institute in Hamburg. At the time, classical plant breeding was making way for revolutionary molecular technology. Jan was hooked.
After high school, he applied to the only three universities in Germany offering biochemistry but was rejected. Undeterred, he studied chemistry at his hometown University of Hamburg and specialised later. Jan credits the chance hearing of a PhD position in Robert Huber’s lab at the Max Planck Institute in Martinsried as one of the best moves of his career. Here he learned to focus on the science to achieve results that matter.

Jan’s adventure into the inner workings of bacteria began almost 11 years ago when he joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB) as a post-doc. His work with Linda Amos on trying to crystallise tubulin led to work on a bacterial version of it, called FtsZ. In 1998, Jan solved the structure of FtsZ. Three years later, his group determined the structure of MreB, a prokaryotic actin-like protein which had been discovered by Jeff Errington. The structural discoveries of FtsZ and MreB proved to be key pieces of evidence for the discovery of the bacterial cytoskeleton.

Until that point, having a cytoskeleton was a claim to fame held only by eukaryotic cells. The inner workings of bacterial (prokaryotic) cells were now showcased against the backdrop of a flexible scaffolding. As a result, essential processes of the bacterial cell, such as cell shape maintenance, DNA segregation and cell division were viewed in a different light.

Löwe’s many accomplishments in his young career illustrate the “golden” qualities that characterise all EMBO medal winners. “Jan has single-handedly revolutionised our understanding of the bacterial cell cycle and cell morphogenesis, through his insightful structural studies on virtually all of the key players,” says Jeff Errington, Director of Newcastle University’s Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences. “His work highlights the complexity and sophistication of bacterial cells, and how they remain wonderful subjects for studying fundamental biological mechanisms at the molecular level.”

Two years after starting his post-doc at the MRC-LMB, Jan fast-tracked to become a Group Leader, and has focused on “Molecular Machines”. Recently, his group has discovered another protein in bacteria that was thought to be a 'signature' protein for eukaryotic cells: dynamin. They continue to explore the bacterial cytoskeleton using X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy and are starting to use electron tomography of whole, frozen cells to visualise the cytoskeleton in cells.

In addition to the EMBO Gold Medal, Löwe has received several other awards and accolades, including the Max-Perutz Prize for his work on the structure of FtsZ and the Philip Leverhulme prize. Jan has also been no stranger to EMBO over the years. His post-doc in Cambridge was funded by an EMBO Long-term fellowship, he was selected in 2000 to participate in EMBO’s highly competitive Young Investigator Programme and, in 2004, he was elected as an EMBO Member.

 “EMBO has been a tremendous support to me during my career and I am extremely delighted to have won such a prestigious award,” said Jan enthusiastically. “It's not always easy to convince people that working on the inner workings of bacteria is worthwhile and the EMBO medal will help a great deal. It's fantastic!”

Awarded annually, the EMBO Gold Medal recognises outstanding contributions of young researchers in the molecular life sciences. The medal and an award of 10,000 euro was presented to Jan on 27 October 2007 at the EMBO Members Meeting, “Frontiers of Molecular Biology”, in Barcelona, Spain.

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