Prize for interdisciplin­ary cooperation of the VdFF awarded

On June 12th, the Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Helmholtz Zentrum München (VdFF) and the AtemWeg Foundation invited for the second time to the awarding ceremony in the Hall of Honour of the Deutsches Museum. Also present were Ministerial Director of the State Ministry for Science and Art, Dr. Michael Mihatsch as well as Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen , physician and comedian, who gave a highly entertaining and informative lecture on the topic "Humor helps to heal - how positive psychology changes the health system".

The VdFF's prize for interdisciplinary collaboration, endowed with 10,000 EUR, was awarded to Prof. Heiko Lickert's research team, which reports in the renowned journal 'Nature' on a possible starting point for regenerative therapies of diabetes. The VdFF honors works in which significant new discoveries have only been made possible by overcoming the boundaries between established disciplines. "Heiko Lickert's team has succeeded in gaining a precise cellular and molecular understanding of the old observation of different beta cell types in the insulin-producing islets of the pancreas. The team combined biological and clinical expertise in diabetes research with concepts and techniques that stem cell researchers use to visualize the development and differentiation of specialized cells. Molecular understanding and detection methods are important prerequisites for new and targeted therapeutic approaches.” praised the chairman of the VdFF, Prof. Martin Göttlicher. The newly identified flattop divides the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas into two different subpopulations: Those that maintain the sugar metabolism and those that divide more frequently and thus adapt the entire beta cell mass to metabolic changes.

A list of all prize winners canbe found here.
https://www.vdff-helmholtz-muenchen.de/foerderaktivitaeten/preis-fuer-interdisziplinaere-zusammenarbeit/index.html

Link to the original work of Bader et al.