Jakob Fuhrmann presented with Rabitsch Award 2008

Jakob Fuhrmann, a PhD student in the lab of Tim Clausen, was presented with the Rabitsch Award 2008 for research on arginine phosphorylation.

In the course of his doctoral research, Jakob Fuhrmann studied arginine phosphorylation in a protein context, and characterised McsB as a new class of protein kinase. Early in his project, Fuhrmann noticed a mysterious kinase activity of McsB, which could not been explained with standard methods. Fuhrmann and his collaborates mapped the sites of phosphorylation and what other substrates McsB phosphorylated. The scientists also found that the structure of one of the substrates, the heat shock regulator CtsR, bound to DNA. This crystal structure revealed a crucial Arginine residue essential for DNA binding, a prime site for arginine phosphorylation, thereby preventing DNA interaction.

The "Kirsten Peter Rabitsch Award" is bestowed annually upon the most promising PhD student at the IMP or IMBA. The award was set up in 2006 by the IMP and the family of Kirsten Peter Rabitsch, a former PhD Student who died tragically that year. As in previous years, the prize was delivered by Hermann Rabitsch, Kirsten’s father, at the occasion of the annual IMP-IMBA Recess.
 

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