The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is Germany’s most valuable international research award bringing each researcher funding of up to five million euros. Among this year’s prize winners is renowned stem cell researcher Prof. Dr. Heinrich Jasper of Buck Institute for Research on Aging, USA who had been suggested by the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU).
The Humboldt Professorship gives German universities and research institutes the possibility to attract international top-level researchers to Germany, offering them an excellent research environment which is state of the art even in a worldwide comparison. “We are overwhelmed that our suggestion was appreciated by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Now, the Friedrich Schiller University and the FLI have to make every effort to successfully gain Prof. Dr. Heinrich Jasper’s wealth of experience with regard to stem cell and aging research for the research landscape in Jena”, Prof. Dr. K. Lenhard Rudolph, Scientific Director at the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), happily states. “We are especially proud that Prof. Jasper would be the first Humboldt Professor in Thuringia ever”, Prof. Dr. Walter Rosenthal, President of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, adds. If the appointment of Prof. Jasper is successful, the whole aging research in Jena will be heavily strengthened.
The Award Winner
Prof. Dr. Heinrich Jasper (41) is one of the worldwide leading scientists within the field of stem cell and aging research. He was one of the first scientists to use the Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) as model system for stem cell aging. During the last years, Jasper identified various basic mechanisms of stem cell aging and was the first to show in an animal (fruit fly) the negative correlation between the rate of stem cell proliferation and lifespan. “Heinrich Jasper’s expertise would very well complement our main research focus at FLI, especially his deep knowledge about signaling pathways linked to the influence of aging and inflammation on stem cell function and organ maintenance. Together with our colleagues from the FSU and the University Hospital Jena, we could use the short-living fruit fly to further decipher basic mechanisms of aging and to test whether these mechanisms are also valid for the decreasing organ maintenance and the emergence of diseases in aging humans”, Prof. Rudolph emphasizes.
The Award
The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is granted to eminent international researchers of all disciplines who are currently working abroad to enable them to conduct long-term research at German universities: the award amount is earmarked for the first five years’ research in Germany. It is granted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
