The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) awards for 2012 have been announced – with super-successful applications of MPI-CBG researchers.
Christian Eckmann, research group leader at the MPI-CBG, has been awarded the highly prestigious and competitive Program Grant Award. These grants are awarded for novel collaborations among highly interdisciplinary teams of scientists working in different countries and provide three years support with up to 450,000 USD per year. Christian Eckmann will share his award with Clifford Brangwynne (Princeton University, USA) and Sua Myong, (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA). Their joint project will study in a multi-scale approach the role that RNA helicases play in the underlying molecular dynamics and structural fluidity of RNP bodies.
Nadine Vastenhouw has been awarded the highly prestigious and competitive Career Development Award. This award is designed to assist HFSP Long Term Fellows in their transition to independence – it comes with a total amount of 300,000 USD for 3 years to support establishing an own research program. Nadine currently works as a postdoc in Alexander Schier’s group at Harvard and will join the MPI-CBG Faculty as Research Group Leader in May 2012. She will study the role of chromatin in gene regulation during developmental transitions in the vertebrate embryo.
Pavel Tomancak’s 2008 Young Investigator Grant has been renewed. It happened for the first time in HFSP history that such a grant has been renewed! Tomancak’s group is interested in the nature of the constraints that have led to the remarkable morphological conservation in early development of animals within each major animal group (phylum). The so-called phylotypic period is preceded and followed by greater morphological diversity resulting in the characteristic hourglass pattern of divergence. The Tomancak Lab is extremely happy to be able to continue the productive collaboration on the developmental hourglass model with Casey Bergman (Manchester) and Uwe Ohler (Duke). Importantly Alex Kalinka (MPI-CBG), the post-doctoral fellow instrumental for the hourglass analysis and the formulation of the renewal proposal, will be again joining the HFSP dream team.
Congratulations to the successful applicants from everybody at the MPI-CBG!
The Human Frontier Science Program is an international program of research support. Its aims are to promote intercontinental collaboration and training for people from postdoc to mature group leaders in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research focused on the life sciences. HFSPO receives financial support from the governments or research councils of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, UK, USA, as well as from the European Union.