Marieke Essers receives the Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Award

The awardees Theodore Alexandrov and Marieke Essers together with the representative of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation and the laudators. From left to right: Rohini Kuner, Karoly Nikolich, Theodore Alexandrov, Marieke Essers, Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Petra Boukamp, Rüdiger Hell (Photo:Philipp Rothe)

On February 5, 2018, the Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Award were presented to HI-STEM Group Leader Marieke Essers during the official award ceremony at Heidelberg University. She received the award for her pioneering work on hematopoietic stem cells and their activation during stress conditions. The award is endowed with 100,000 euros. Prof. Petra Boukamp, a researcher at the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and former division head at the DKFZ, emphasized during her laudation, how Marieke, as a successful scientist and team leader made important contributions to the elucidation of stem cell functions in hematopoiesis and the role of inflammatory processes on them.

Marieke, who has been a group leader at HI-STEM since 2009, especially thanked the Dietmar-Hopp-Foundation for the generous support of the research carried out at HI-STEM, which is run as a public-private partnership between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the foundation.

The second award was presented to Dr. Theodore Alexandrov from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) for his pioneering work in metabolome research.

Further Information:

·         Press Release of German Cancer Resarch Center

·         Website of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation

·         Research Group Marieke Essers: Stress-induced Activation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

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    The awardees Theodore Alexandrov and Marieke Essers together with the representative of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation and the laudators. From left to right: Rohini Kuner, Karoly Nikolich, Theodore Alexandrov, Marieke Essers, Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Petra Boukamp, Rüdiger Hell (Photo:Philipp Rothe)
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    The management board of the DKFZ, Prof. Michael Baumann (left) and Prof. Josef Puchta (right) also congratulated the awardees. (Photo:Philipp Rothe)