Ceciel Jegers, PhD student in the research lab of Tony Hyman, received a Boehringer Ingelheim Fellowship to pursue her research on the organisation of the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is extremely crowded with macromolecules, which makes it a difficult environment for the organisation of multi-enzymatic reactions. To solve this problem, the cells have developed compartments as a home for enzymes. Apart from using membrane-bound compartments, cells can increase local enzyme concentrations by forming non-membrane bound condensates. During her PhD, Ceciel wants to understand how these multi-enzyme condensates form and what their functional significance is for reaction kinetics and cell behaviour.
The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds awards PhD fellowships to outstanding junior scientists in internationally leading laboratories. The goal is to promote basic research in biomedicine by providing the best young, up-and-coming scientists with comprehensive support during their PhD phase.
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