Medicine
Awards and Distinctions
The Faculty of Medicine hosted its 12th Research Day in 2013. At the event, doctoral students delivered poster presentations on their projects to the public. Anika Klingberg (Institute of Experimental Immunology and Imaging) secured the presentation prize for her dissertation titled “A complex network of trans diaphysal blood vessels: Highway for bone-marrow-derived cells?”. In her work she employed 2-photon and light sheet microscopy to investigate the structural organisation of the vascular system in bone marrow and diaphysis that allows migration of immune cells and possibly also haematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow. In 2014 the prize was awarded to Debora Dankert (Institute of Anatomy) for her presentation on the “Loss of H3K9 trimethylation after pre- and postovulatory aging in in vivo- and in vitro-grown oocytes”.
2014 was also the first year of the Research Day of the Medical Research Centre (MFZ). 24 research group leaders introduced their work in short lectures and individual projects were presented in 56 posters. The MFZ Research Day was a resounding success for the 120 participants and clearly reflected the diversity and high quality of research ongoing at the MFZ.
Members of the Faculty of Medicine again received numerous prestigious awards and were appointed to important positions during the reporting period. Prof. Gerd Heusch, Institute of Pathophysiology, was appointed by the Spanish government together with Nobel laureate Louis Ignarro to the Scientific Advisory Board of the CNIC (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares) in Madrid. He also received the Distinguished Leader Award of the International Society for Heart Research for his many years of work in cardiac research. Prof. Heusch has also been appointed Scientific and Medical Managing Director of the new West German Heart and Vascular Centre Essen. “ZukunftErfindenNRW” (“NRW Inventing the Future”) is a higher education competition to recognise new discoveries with major practical potential. In 2014, a team of researchers under Prof. Till Neumann (Clinic for Cardiology) received a prize worth 10,000 euros in the life sciences category from the Minister of Innovation, Science and Research Svenja Schulze. The distinction was awarded for a new minimal invasive procedure to treat mitral valve insufficiency. Prof. Ulrike Schara (Clinic for Paediatrics I) was elected president of the Society of Neuropaediatrics. The Director of the Institute of Transfusion Medicine, Prof. Peter Horn, is the new chair of the steering group of the Stem Cell Network. A great honour was bestowed on Prof. Hans C. Diener during the 2013 German Pain Congress. The Director of the Clinic for Neurology was made honorary president of the German Migraine and Headache Society (DMKG) for his services to research on migraine and headache. Prof. Johannes H. Schulte of the Clinic for Paediatrics III was awarded the Kind-Philipp Prize in 2013 for his work on “New advances in the development of a precise neuroblastoma therapy”. The 10,000 euro prize is awarded by the Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (GPOH) and is the highest accolade in the field in the German-speaking world.