Claudia Gerri © Katrin Boes / MPI-CBG
The German Stem Cell Network (GSCN) announced the GSCN Awards 2024. With the GSCN Awards, the German Stem Cell Network recognizes outstanding stem cell researchers on their way to expanding basic research and opening up new avenues for therapeutic options. One of the awardees is Claudia Gerri, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, who received the GSCN 2024 Young Investigator Award for her research at the interface between fetus and mother in various species.
Claudia Gerri wants to investigate a mysterious process of reproduction in mammals: the development of the placenta. In her laboratory at the MPI-CBG, the young Italian scientist is investigating how cell lines are formed and how they communicate with each other and with the surrounding microenvironment in order to build an organ. Gerri is driven by the interest in understanding how the environment and neighboring tissues influence early cell fate decisions and how progenitor cells interpret and respond to these signals. Studying the formation of fetal placental progenitor cells and their interactions with maternal tissues will shed light on the interaction of two tissues and organisms and understand their development. Gerri wants to shed light on a still unknown biological phenomenon: the principles of robust organ morphogenesis, the placenta, during development.
The "GSCN 2024 Hilde Mangold Award" goes to Mina Gouti from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. The "GSCN Publication of the Year Award 2024" is awarded to Jorge Lázaro, Miki Ebisuya and the other authors for the publication "A stem cell zoo uncovers intracellular scaling of developmental tempo across mammals", 2023, Lázaro J, Costanzo M, Sanaki-Matsumiya M, Girardot C, Hayashi M, Hayashi K, Diecke S, Hildebrandt TB, Lazzari G, Wu J, Petkov S, Behr R, Trivedi V, Matsuda M, Ebisuya M., Cell Stem Cell, 30: 938-949. The research group of Miki Ebisuya is also located in Dresden at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life at the TU Dresden.
The three GSCN awards are endowed with 1,500 Euros each and the winners will give a lecture at the Presidential Symposium on Thursday, 26 September 2024, at the GSCN Conference in Jena.
Since 2013, the GSCN has been networking stem cell researchers working in Germany both nationally and internationally and communicating their results and research to a broad public. The promotion of young scientists and the presentation of outstanding female scientists receive special attention at the GSCN with the “GSCN Hilde Mangold Award.” Since 2021, the GSCN has been cooperating closely with the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) in the jointly founded “Dialogue Platform Stem Cell Research.”
Congratulations to all awardees!
Press release of the German Stem Cell Network: https://www.gscn.org/scientific-resources/german-stem-cell-network-awards