Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA

Heinrich Wieland Prize 2012 for pioneering achievements in chemical biology, particularly the innovative use of bioorthogonal chemistry

Research

Bertozzi has founded the field of bioorthogonal chemistry situated at the intersection between synthetic chemistry and biology. As an innovative breakthrough method, she developed the biosynthesis and use of bioorthogonal labels, unique chemical biomarkers targeting specific macromolecules in vivo. Bertozzi thus identified sugar patterns on the cell surface which are specific to cancer, inflammation, or infection. She paved the way for novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to these diseases and is designing nanomaterials for drug delivery into living cells.

Academic Career

Bertozzi obtained her PhD in chemistry in Berkeley in 1993, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of California in San Francisco. In 1996, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty. In 2000, she became a  Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She was the Director of The Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience institute at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, from 2006 to 2010.

Selected Honours & Memberships

Ernst Schering Prize (2007), Lemelson-MIT Prize (2010, as the first woman), Heinrich Wieland Prize (2012)
German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors

Additional Activities

• Founder and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the biotech company Redwood Biosciences, which is developing a chemical engineering platform to produce antibody-drug conjugates and other semi-synthetic biotherapeutics
• Research Advisory Board, GlaxoSmithKline
• Co-director UC Berkeley Chemical Biology Graduate Program

Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany

Heinrich Wieland Prize 2014 for paradigmatic studies on membrane fusion, synaptic vesicles and neurotransmitter release

Research

Reinhard Jahn has pioneered research into membrane fusion and neurotransmitter release. In the brain, nerve cells send chemical signals to each other by releasing neurotransmitters from their storage place within the cell, the synaptic vesicles. For release, the membranes of the vesicle and its cell need to fuse. Jahn was among the first to discover that so-called SNARE proteins drive membrane fusion by showing that tetanus and botulinum toxins inhibit the process by cleaving these proteins. He was also the first to describe synaptic vesicles by analyzing their building blocks. Membranes fuse in all body cells that grow, transport substances, or signal, making Jahn’s paradigmatic results relevant for a wide range of fields.

Academic Career

Jahn studied biology and chemistry at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He subsequently worked for four years at Yale University and Rockefeller University in the USA. He returned to Germany in 1986 and served as a junior group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Martinsried until 1991. After holding a professorship at the Yale University School of Medicine with a joint appointment at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for six years, he once again made his way back to Germany to assume his current position.

Selected Honours & Memberships

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2000), Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine (2006), Heinrich Wieland Prize (2014)
German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), EMBO member

Additional Activities

• Founder and dean of the International Max Planck Research School Molecular Biology and of the Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences.
• Vocal advocate for improving conditions for graduate students and mentor for female scientists

Director of the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK

Heinrich Wieland Prize 2009 for outstanding achievements in the synthesis of key natural products

Research

Steven Ley is one of the leading scientists in developing chemical methods for the synthesis of natural products. In particular, his work on iron chemistry, encapsulated reagents, microbial oxidation, spiroketals, organic catalysis, and microwave chemistry has been groundbreaking. Ley has pioneered the use of immobilized reagents in multi-step organic synthesis to make compounds in a cleaner and more effective way. He has devised many practical protecting groups using acetal chemistry and he was one of the inventors of TPAP, a widely used catalytic oxidant.

Academic Career

Ley started as a lecturer at Imperial College in 1975, was promoted to Professor in 1983, and became Head of Department in 1989, before moving to Cambridge University, UK, in 1992.

Selected Honours & Memberships

CBE Commander of the British Empire (2002), Humboldt Research Award (2004), Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry, Elsevier (2009), Heinrich Wieland Prize (2009), Paracelsus Prize (2010), Royal Medal (2011), Longstaff Prize, Royal Society of Chemistry (2013), F.Med.Sci, The Academy of Medical Sciences (2005), Foreign Member, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2007), Foreign Fellow, Indian National Science Academy (2009)

Additional Activities

Consultant and scientific advisory board member to companies such as Pfizer, Syngenta, IFF, and UCB.