Thomas Jenuwein receives the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Thomas Jenuwein receives the Erwin Schrödinger Prize in honour of his outstanding contributions to molecular biology. For more than ten years, his research work has focused on Chromatin, the complex of DNA and proteins which constitutes chromosomes.

In particular, he is interested in the chemical modifications of Histone proteins which bind to DNA. His research led to the characterization of the first Histone-Lysine-Methyltransferase, an enzyme which specifically methylates Histone H3. This work, published in the journal Nature in 2000, opened up an entirely new area of research. The discoveries of Jenuwein and his team are of major significance to the rapidly expanding field of Epigenetics.

Thomas Jenuwein will receive the Erwin Schrödinger Prize on Friday, October 12, at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He shares the prize with Prof. Georg Brasseur of the Technical University Graz.

About Thomas Jenuwein
Thomas Jenuwein is a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and Honorary Professor for Epigenetics at the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate in 1987 at the EMBL in Heidelberg. From there he went on to do post-doctoral studies at the Department of Microbiology of the University of California, San Francisco. From 1994 to 2001, Thomas Jenuwein was a Group Leader at the IMP.

About the the Erwin Schrödinger-Prize
The Erwin Schrödinger-Prize was endowed in 1956 by the Austrian Federal Minister for Education. It is awarded annually by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The prize, worth 15,000 Euro, goes to researches who work in Austria and who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences.