Jiri Wald receives the Heinrich Netheler Doctoral Award
On December 2, Jiri Wald from the Marlovits group (UKE) received the Heinrich Netheler Doctoral Award for Molecular Biology. This 1,250 Euro prize was awarded by the Friends and Sponsors of the UKE (Der Freundes- und Förderkreis des UKE e.V.) donated by the Dr. Netheler family (founder of Eppendorf AG) during a celebration at the UKE’s Erika House. Jiri was one of 13 PhD students to receive a prize for his excellent doctoral thesis. In his PhD work he used biochemistry and cryo-electron-microscopy to unravel structures and underlaying mechanisms of actively acting molecular machines. “I would like to thank all my present and past colleagues in the lab of Thomas Marlovits for all the great help. But most importantly Thomas for all his support,” says Wald.
At CSSB Jiri teamed up with Dirk Fahrenkamp (postdoc in Marlvits Lab) to finalize his main project, which showed how the RuvAB branch migration complex, a complex molecular motor, converts chemical energy into mechanical work to allow the recombination and repair of DNA.
“Using the high-end cryo-EM microscopes at CSSB, Jiri was able to unveil that detailed workings of a complex molecular machinery,” notes Marlovits “He has worked very hard to unravel this molecular puzzle and I am happy that his accomplishments are being recognized with this well-deserved award.”
Original Publications:
Mechanism of AAA+ ATPase-mediated RuvAB-Holliday junction branch migration; Jiri Wald et al.; Nature, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05121-1
Cryo-EM structure of pleconaril-resistant rhinovirus-B5 complexed to the antiviral OBR-5-340 reveals unexpected binding site; Jiri Wald et al.; PNAS, 2019, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1904732116
CSSB News Story about RuvAB:
https://www.cssb-hamburg.de/news_amp_events/articles/2022/how_do_molecular_motors_convert_chemical_energy_in_to_mechanical_work/index_eng.html
News Story from UKE:
https://www.uke.de/allgemein/ueber-uns/freundes-und-foerderkreis/promotionspreise/index.html
