Advancement prize of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation  Award for Dr Mandy Jeske

Her laudator was convinced that the prize-winner would continue to make exciting and surprising discoveries in the future and expressed her delight in the recognition alongside Dr Mandy Jeske: the scientist from Heidelberg University’s Biochemistry Center has been honored by the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation. She received the advancement prize for biomedical research named after the founders, which is endowed with research funding amounting to 100,000 euros. It recognizes her research on a special class of ribonucleic acids that are of fundamental importance for genome stability during gametogenesis in animals.

At the BZH, research group leader Mandy Jeske is working on what is known as piRNAs – small regulatory ribonucleic acids that inhibit the activity of mobile genetic elements in animal germ cells. With her team, the scientist is using a multidisciplinary approach to examining protein complexes essential for the biogenesis, maturing and function of piRNAs. For their lab-based investigations, the researchers are using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an established model organism for research questions in developmental biology. To decode the molecular functions of piRNA-associated protein complexes, Dr Jeske combines methods from biochemistry and structural biology with approaches from cell biology and genetics. An especially developed test procedure called ReLo enables the quick and easy study of interactions between structurally complex proteins in a cellular context. With the help of ReLo, it has become possible, for instance, to quickly test pairwise interactions of over 25 proteins, which are important for the biogenesis and function of piRNAs. 

According to the scientist, the outcome of this interaction screen will, in the long-term, pave the way for further studies on the mechanisms responsible for maintaining genome stability in animal germlines. Dr Jeske has since 2017 led a research group on the biogenesis and function of piRNA at the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center, which is funded in the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation. The Chica and Heinz Schaller advancement prize, which she has just been awarded, is one of the main funding instruments of the Foundation and has been awarded annually to outstanding young Heidelberg scientists since 2005. 

The first speaker at the award ceremony on 4 December 2024 was Prof. Dr Rohini Kuner, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Chica und Heinz Schaller Foundation. As Chairperson of the foundation’s Scientific Advisory Council, Prof. Dr Hans-Georg Kräusslich introduced Prof. Dr Anne Ephrussi from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, who paid tribute to the scientific background and projects of the prize-winner. Dr Jeske explained the focus and aims of her research in the “2024 Schaller Prize Lecture”. Deputy Board Chair Prof. Dr Karoly Nikolich then presented the award. The final speaker was Prof. Dr Ralf Bartenschlager as member of the foundation’s Board of Directors.