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Falling Walls 2023 Winner | Life Science

Unlocking RNA’s potential: Claudia Höbartner’s exploration of functional nucleic acids

Our project "Molecular evolution of RNA-modifying ribozymes" is among this year's Falling Walls Finalists in the Life Science category.

On April 28th, 2023 Florian Seitz successfully defended his PhD on "Synthesis, enzymatic recognition and antiviral properties of modified purine nucleosides". Congratulations and all best wishes for a bright future!

On April 3rd, 2023 Carina Stiller successfully defended her PhD on "Synthesis and applications of modified nucleosides and RNA nucleotides". Congratulations and all best wishes for a bright future!

Claudia Höbartner is being honoured for her outstanding research on the nucleic acids DNA and RNA: She receives the prestigious Leibniz Prize by the DFG.

Claudia has been awarded the 2022 Meyerhof Medal from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research.

On August 18th, 2022 Anam Liaqat successfully defended her PhD on "Artificial Evolution of Nucleic Acid Catalysts and their Use for Studying RNA". Congratulations and all best wishes for a bright future!

Die Kristallstruktur des Methyltransferase-Ribozyms MTR1 zeigt die erstaunliche Architektur der Bindungsstasche für den Cofaktor und einen unerwarteten Mechanismus der Methylgruppenübertragung.

On February 25th, 2022 Julia Dietzsch successfully defended her PhD on "Nucleic acid-mediated fluorescence activation and chromophore assembly". Congratulations and all best wishes for a bright future!

On October 18th, 2021 Aaron Siewert successfully defended his PhD on "Nucleotide Analogs as Rigid Spin Labels for DNA and RNA". Congratulations and all best wishes for a bright future!

Julia Dietzsch was awarded a poster prize at the X. Meeting on Nucleic Acid Chemistry (Nucleinsäurechemie-Treffen) for her poster presentation “Dipolar interactions of merocyanine barbiturate nucleoside analogs guided by double helix conformations”. Congratulations for this award!

Congratulations! Farbod received the GDCh Förderpreis Biochemie 2021 for his dissertation entitled “Development, characterization, and application of RNA catalysts for in situ labelling of target RNA molecules”. We are proud of you!

Thanks to Carolin for her delicious contribution to the Inaugural RNA Society Baking Competition.

The structure of the fluorogenic Chili RNA aptamer and its mechanism of fluorescence activation by excited state proton transfer to the RNA are now reported in Nature Communications.

On March 26th, 2021 Mateusz Mieczkowski successfully defended his PhD on "Structural investigations of functional nucleic acids". Congratulations and all best wishes for a bright future!