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Markus Bohnsack wins FEBS Distinguished Young Investigator Award

For his work on the function of RNA helicases in the biogenesis of ribosomes, Markus T. Bohnsack has been awarded the FEBS Distinguished Young Investigator Award. The prize money of € 10.000 will be spent on further research to study the roles of RNA helicases in baker’s yeast, the awardee said.

Ribosomes are molecular machines that mediate the production of all cellular proteins. In eukaryotes, such as yeast, humans and plants, more than 180 proteins are required for the synthesis of ribosomes. Among them are RNA helicases that are thought to act in RNA unwinding and structural remodeling during the biogenesis pathway. RNA helicases have recently attracted increasing attention since they are thought to play key roles in different pathways of cellular metabolism and Markus T. Bohnsack has contributed to the elucidation of the function of several such proteins in the ribosome biogenesis pathway.

Dr Markus T. Bohnsack has a long standing interest in the biogenesis of the translation machinery. From 2000 to 2005, he has been working on nuclear export of RNPs and proteins with Dirk Görlich at the ZMBH in Heidelberg, where he obtained his PhD. He then moved to the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology in Edinburgh (Scotland) to study ribosome biogenesis in baker’s yeast in the lab of David Tollervey. In July 2008, Markus T. Bohnsack moved to Frankfurt where he has been appointed CEF Adjunct Investigator and is a member of the Cluster of Excellence Macromolecular Complexes since the beginning of 2009.

 

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