Neurobiologist Prof Dr Illana Gozes from Tel Aviv University (Israel) has received the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award, endowed with 60,000 euros, at the suggestion of Prof Dr Christiane Richter-Landsberg, Department for Neuroscience at the university.
With this award, the foundation honours Gozes' overall scientific work and her outstanding achievements in research and teaching.Gozes completed her doctorate at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, and then spent several years conducting research in the USA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and the Salk Institute, San Diego.
Since 1993, she has been Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at Tel Aviv University, where she currently heads the Adams Super Centre for Brain Studies. "Prof Dr Illana Gozes is a highly renowned neuroscientist. She has published extensively and has discovered a class of new proteins that are crucial for brain development and ageing processes," says Richter-Landsberg.
Gozes co-founded the company Allon Therapeutic Inc. and contributed to the development of a drug for the treatment of diseases of the nervous system - especially Alzheimer's disease. She is a founding member of the "Israel Brain Council" and editor of the "Journal of Molecular Neuroscience".
Over the next two years, the Humboldt Prize winner and visiting scientist at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Delmenhorst, will also be conducting research in the Oldenburg neurobiologist's working group. "The aim of the joint research project is to further characterise the molecular basis underlying the protective effect of neuroprotective proteins - with a special focus on the myelin-forming glial cells of the brain and their molecular support system, the cytoskeleton."