EMBO Gold Medal

David Bikard is a microbiologist and researcher at the Institut Pasteur, where he leads the Synthetic Biology Laboratory.

An engineering graduate from AgroParisTech, he obtained his PhD from the University of Paris Diderot in 2010 for his research on genetic recombination in bacteria, carried out at the Institut Pasteur.

From 2011 to 2014, he worked at Rockefeller University in New York, where he began research on CRISPR-Cas systems. Since 2014, he has led a research team at the Institut Pasteur, continuing his work on genetic innovation at the interface between bacteria and their viruses.

David Bikard is also a co-founder of Eligo Bioscience, a biotechnology company developing new therapeutic strategies targeting bacteria within the microbiome.

Elvan Böke studied Molecular Biology & Genetics for her undergraduate degree at the Middle East Technical University (METU/ODTU) in her native Turkey and was the valedictorian of her graduating class of 2008. 

She performed her PhD training at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute on cell division (2008-2012), and postdoc training at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA on cytoplasmic organisation (2013-2016). In 2017, Elvan started her own lab at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona. 

Elvan is an EMBO Young Investigator (2021) and received two consecutive European Research Council (ERC) Grants (Starting in 2017 and Consolidator in 2022).

Her [lab's] recent discoveries highlight the unique adaptations of oocyte metabolism and proteome to accommodate the long oocyte lifespan.

Julia Mahamid is a renowned structural cell biologist and electron microscopist leading a Research Group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. She is known for her work on advanced cellular cryo-electron tomography aiming to enhance the comprehension of the functional organization of the cytoplasm through bimolecular condensates, in response to changing cell states and environmental conditions.

Mahamid completed her Master's and Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (2011-2017), she pioneered methods in cryo-electron tomography of intact cells. Since 2017, she has led groundbreaking research at EMBL Heidelberg, focusing on high-resolution 3D imaging of cellular machinery.

Mahamid's contributions include advancing the cryo-focused ion beam technique for creating "electron-transparent windows” in cells and multicellular models, and correlative approaches for observing specific cellular structures.

Mahamid serves on the Journal of Structural Biology's editorial board. Her accolades include the 2017 ERC Starting Grant, the 2021 Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Visual Proteomics Imaging Grant, the 2023 EMBO Gold Medal and the 2023 ERC Synergy Grant. In 2021, she was featured in "Author File" in Nature Methods. 

Born in Germany, Andrea Ablasser studied Medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (GER) and earned her MD in 2010. After a postdoctoral work at the University of Bonn (GER), she joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (CH) as Professor in 2014. Amongst several distinctions, Ablasser is a recipient of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award, the William B. Coley Prize, the EMBO Gold Medal, and the National Latsis Prize. Since 2020 she is named "highly Cited Researcher" (Clarivate Analytics). Ablasser is an elected member of EMBO and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 2018, she co-founded IFM-Due, a company developing immunomodulatory medicines, which was acquired by Novartis in 2024.

Ablasser is studying the mechanisms of innate immunity. She played a major role in deciphering how cells respond to intracellular DNA as a signal of infection via the so-called cGAS-STING pathway - a fundamental mechanism of immunity that evolved in bacteria billions of years ago. Apart from its beneficial role in pathogen defense, recognition of DNA is implicated in the pathogenesis of several inflammatory diseases, including neurodegenerative disease and autoimmunity. Ablasser's current research focuses on understanding molecular rules that govern the termination and control innate immune responses. Using this insight, she is investigating the roles of innate immunity in contexts of disease and exploring novel therapeutic paradigms for cancer immunotherapy.

Sarah-Maria Fendt, born 1980 in Bavaria, Germany, is a Principal Investigator at the VIB Center for Cancer Biology and Professor of Oncology at KU Leuven, Belgium. Fendt did her master thesis at the Danish Technical University (DTU) in Lyngby. With her PhD at the Department of Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, she became an expert in metabolism and multi-omics data. After her PhD she performed postdoctoral research at the Harvard Medical School in Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA studying cancer metabolism. Her postdoctoral research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and she received an AACR Membership Award to Support Early-Career Investigators-in-Training for her impactful postdoctoral research at MIT.

In 2013, Sarah-Maria moved to Belgium to start her independent laboratory at the Department of Oncology in Leuven and the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology with funding from a Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO)-Odysseus II grant.  She then won several awards such as the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Gold Medal (2020), the Baillet Latour Grant for Medical Research (2020), the Beug Prize for Metastasis Research (2021), the Francqui-Collen Prize (2023, most important science prize in Belgium), the 51st ARC Leopold Griffuel Award (2023, youngest prize winner) and the AACR Outstanding Achievement in Basic Cancer Research Award (2024). Moreover, she was elected as EMBO member in 2022 and selected as one of 50 Scientists that Inspire by Cell Press in 2024.

Paola Picotti, born in 1977, is an Italian biochemist and Professor for Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zürich. Serving as Deputy Head of the Institute for Molecular Systems Biology, her research focuses on understanding how conformational changes in proteins impact cellular networks.

Picotti completed her medicinal chemistry studies at the University of Padua and later joined Ruedi Aebersold's laboratory at ETH Zürich. Pioneering "LiP-MS," a method combining limited proteolysis and mass spectrometry, she monitors conformational changes in proteins, providing insights into dynamic 3D proteomes and studying protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases.

Recognised for her contributions, Picotti has received prestigious awards, including the 2019 EMBO Gold Medal, the 2020 ETH Zürich Rössler Prize, and honors from organizations like the European Proteomics Association and the Swiss Society for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. In 2020, she was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and in 2021, she was a winner of the Falling Walls Award for Life Sciences. Her work significantly advances the understanding of molecular systems biology and proteomics.

M. Madan Babu joined St. Jude in the Structural Biology department in 2020, following a 14-year tenure as a program leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

Babu earned his PhD in computational genomics from Cambridge University and his undergraduate degree from Anna University, Chennai, India. Babu completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

He has received several awards, including the EMBO Young Investigator award (2009), Royal Society of Chemistry Molecular BioSystems Award (2011), and has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023. Babu also serves as the chief editor of the journal Molecular Systems Biology.

Melina Schuh, born in 1980, is a German biochemist and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences.

Schuh completed her Ph.D. at EMBL, focusing on meiosis in mouse oocytes. She became a Group Leader at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 2009 and later Director at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (now Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences) in 2016.

Schuh's research centers on mammalian oocyte development and the age-related decline in female fertility. Notable contributions include the first studies of meiosis in live human oocytes and developing the Trim-Away protein depletion method. She has received numerous awards, including the EMBO Young Investigator award (2012), ERC Starting Grant (2013), EMBO Gold Medal (2018), and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2019). In 2023, she was honored with an Honorary Professorship at the University of Göttingen.

Maya Schuldiner, born March 15, 1975, is an Israeli molecular geneticist, a full professor at the Faculty of Biochemistry in the Weizmann Institute of Science, who serves as the chair of its scientific council. Her research aims to achieve a mechanistic understanding of the basic functions underlying intracellular organization.

Schuldiner completed both her M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in genetics at the Hebrew University, in 1999 and 2003. She then conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Jonathan Weissman at the University of California in San Francisco from 2003 until 2008, when she joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. She has been a tenured associate professor since 2015 at the department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a full professor since 2020. As of 2024, Schuldiner is a member of Molecular Systems Biology Editorial Board and of Life Science Alliance Advisory Editorial Boards. Schuldiner currently holds the Dr. Omenn and Martha Darling Professorial Chair in Molecular Genetics and currently (as of 2024), she served as the Chair of the Weizmann Institute of Science “Scientific Council”. Throughout the years, she has been taking several other offices of academic administration at Weizmann Institute.

Originally from Scotland, Richard Benton received his PhD in 2003 from the University of Cambridge, and was an EMBO/Heley Hay Whitney post-doctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University, New York. He joined the Center for Integrative Genomics in September 2007 as Assistant Professor and promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and Full Professor in 2018. His group’s research has been recognised by the Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology (2009), Friedrich Miescher Award (2012), AChemS Young Investigator Award for Research in Olfaction (2012), National Latsis Prize (2015) and EMBO Gold Medal (2016). His lab has been supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants, EMBO and HFSP.  He was elected EMBO member in 2019 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021.

Sarah Amalia Teichmann, a German/UK/USA scientist born in 1975, was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal in 2015 for her innovative use of computational and experimental methods to enhance understanding of genomes, proteomes, and evolution.  She obtained her Ph.D. in genome evolution from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) and undertook postdoctoral research at University College London. From 2001, she was an MRC Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, then was a joint faculty member across the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Sanger Institute and from 2016 took on the role of Head of Cellular Genetics at the Sanger Institute. In 2024, she assumed the position of Chair in Stem Cell Medicine at the University of Cambridge, within the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Medicine.   Teichmann has conducted research on protein structure evolution, higher-order protein structure, and gene expression regulation through a combination of wet lab and computational biology techniques. 

She co-founded and co-leads the international Human Cell Atlas consortium, which is developing reference maps for cells across all human tissues and encompasses a membership of over three thousand individuals worldwide. Additionally, she co-directs the CIFAR MacMillan Multiscale Human research programme.  Teichmann's contributions to the field have been recognised through various prestigious awards, including the EMBO Gold Medal, Genetics Society Mary Lyons Award, Biochemical Society GlaxoSmithKline Award, and the FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award in 2023. She is a member of EMBO, an ISCB Fellow, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2020. In 2024, she received the Feldberg Foundation Prize. 

Teichmann is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in science and supports public and patient engagement and science/art projects.  She serves as a non-executive director of 10x Genomics and is a co-founder, consultant, and equity holder of Transition Bio, a molecular condensate company. Furthermore, she holds positions as a part-time employee of GlaxoSmithKline since January 2024 and as a co-founder, consultant, and Chief Scientific Officer of EnsoCell Therapeutics, a drug discovery company specialising in cell atlas technologies and AI/ML.

Prof Amit pioneered the development of single cell genomics and its application for characterizing the immune system. Noticeably, his lab has made some of the most dramatic technology developments in this emerging field. His research using these technologies has revolutionized our understanding of the immune system, identifying dozens of new immune cell states and their roles in physiology and disease. Ido is a world leader and pioneer of modern cell biology and immunology, with outstanding contributions and discoveries that are impacting and shaping basic immunology and immunotherapy research. His discoveries are enabling the development of new immunotherapy strategies,—working with the leading biopharma his  discoveries are driving immense innovation in targeted immunotherapy for autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer – which will lead to the next generation of immunotherapy treatments.

Born in Kibbutz Hazor, Prof. Ido Amit earned his PhD in biological regulation at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2007. He conducted a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Broad Institute of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before joining the Weizmann Institute in 2011. He is the incumbent of the Eden and Steven Romick Professorial Chair. Prof. Amit is the recipient of numerous awards for academic and scientific excellence, including the Michael Bruno Memorial Award from the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2020), the Sanofi-Institute Pasteur Junior Award (2019), recognition as an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2017), the EMBO Gold Medal Award (2015), the Helen and Martin Kimmel Award for Innovative Investigation (2016), and the Rappaport Prize (2016) for his work in revealing the function of the immune system. He was elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2017.

Sophie Martin is a Swiss cell biologist and professor at the University of Geneva. Her research centers on the molecular processes of cell polarization, the self-organization principles by which cells acquire spatial order. A focus of her work is the process of cellular fusion, which underlies the merging of gametes during sexual reproduction, for which she uses the yeast model Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Martin was trained in Switzerland, the UK and the US, receiving her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2003. Between 2007 and 2023, she worked at the University of Lausanne, where she became Director of the Department of Fundamental Microbiology. She was awarded the EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Gold Medal 2014 for her work linking cell polarization to the cell cycle. She has also been recognized with the American Society for Cell Biology Women in Cell Biology Junior Award and the Friedrich Miescher Award. She is an elected EMBO member since 2020. She received ERC grants at Starting, Consolidator and Advanced levels.

Thijn Brummelkamp uses genetics in human cells to pinpoint genes that play a role in human disease. His interests are cancer research, infectious disease and drug action. During his Ph.D. studies he developed a system for the expression of shRNA molecules, enabling gene inhibition through “stable RNA interference”. More recently he has developed an approach for haploid genetic screens in human cells using insertional mutagenesis. He has used this approach to identify host factors used by a variety of pathogens, which led to the identification of the lysosomal cholesterol transporter NPC1 as the long-sought intracellular receptor for Ebola virus. He received his M.S. in biology from the Free University, Amsterdam in 1998 and did his graduate research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Prof. Rene Bernards. In 2004, he was appointed as a Whitehead Fellow to initiate his independent research program in Cambridge, USA, and in 2011, his laboratory moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute and he became an Adjunct Principal Investigator at CeMM. Thijn is a co-founder of 3 biotech companies (Haplogen, Haplogen Genomics and Scenic Biotech). For his studies, he received the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Award (2003), the Annual NVBMB Award (2004, Dutch Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), he was chosen as one of the world’s top 35 Young Innovators by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and received EMBO’s gold medal in 2013.

He was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2011 in recognition of his groundbreaking research on DNA repair mechanisms.

Simon Joseph Boulton FMedSci FRS is a prominent British scientist renowned for his significant contributions to understanding DNA repair and telomere maintenance and their implications for cancer treatment. He currently holds the position of Principal Group leader of the DSB Repair Metabolism Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute, London, while also serving as Chief Translation Advisor at Cancer Research UK, Director of CRUK RadNet City of London and Co-founder and VP Science Strategy of Artios Pharma Ltd.

Early in his academic journey, Boulton studied Molecular Biology at the University of Edinburgh and pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. Boulton then conducted EMBO and HFSP funded postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School, working with Professor Nicholas Dyson and Professor Marc Vidal. In 2002, he joined Cancer Research UK where he established his research group, eventually becoming a Senior Scientist in 2007.

Notable honors and awards include the Colworth Medal (2006), EACR Young Cancer Researcher of the Year award lecture (2008), Eppendorf/Nature Young Investigator Award (2008), Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2010), EMBO Gold Medal (2011), Royal Society Francis Crick Medal and lecture (2011) and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research (2013). Boulton's pioneering work has earned him recognition as a Fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and, most recently, as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.

Jason Chin is currently a Programme Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB), where he is also Head of the Centre for Chemical & Synthetic Biology (CCSB).  He is Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at the University of Cambridge, and holds a joint appointment at the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry.  He is also a fellow in Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Jason is a native of the UK. He was an undergraduate at Oxford University and obtained his PhD as a Fulbright grantee from Yale University. He was also a Damon Runyon Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute.

Jason’s work has been recognized by a number of awards, including: the Francis Crick Prize (Royal Society), the Corday Morgan Prize (Royal Society of Chemistry), European Molecular Biology Organization’s (EMBO) Gold Medal, Louis-Jeantet Young Investigator Career Award, Sackler International Prize in the Physical Science. He is in the European Inventors Hall of Fame, a member of EMBO, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and a Fellow of The Royal Society. His current scientific interests are described in the Research pages.