Thomas Tuschl (born June 1, 1966) is a German

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological che ...

and

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, known for his research on

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

Biography

Tuschl was born in Altdorf bei Nürnberg. After graduating in Chemistry from Regensburg University, Tuschl received his PhD in 1995 from the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

. He spent four years as a post-doctoral fellow at the

Whitehead Institute Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally indepen ...

of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT) in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

, USA. In 1999 he returned to Göttingen, to continue his research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. There he received international recognition in

Genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar worki ...

for his studies of

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by o ...

in collaboration with the laboratory of

Klaus Weber Klaus Weber (5 April 1936 – 8 August 2016) was a German scientist who made many fundamentally important contributions to biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology, and was for many years the director of the Laboratory of Biochemistry an ...

. This enables "switching off" certain

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

s by introducing synthetic short RNA into the cell. The

mRNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. mRNA is created during the ...

is destroyed and the gene in deactivated. Possible future applications of this method include treatment of

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

s or

genetic disorder A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosomal abnormality. Although polygenic disorde ...

s. The function of certain genes can be studied more easily. RNA interference is a major step in genetics. In 2003 Tuschl became professor and head of laboratory at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York (state), New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medica ...

in New York, where he continues his research. He is looking into

microRNA MicroRNA (miRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21 to 23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals and some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. m ...

, small RNA-sections, which are formed by the cells and cause RNA interference like introduced synthetic RNA-strains. In 2006, two of Tuschl's fellow researchers, Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of "RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA".

Awards

Tuschl received several national and international awards for his work: * 2008:

Ernst Jung Prize The Ernst Jung Prize is a prize awarded annually for excellence in biomedical sciences. The Ernst Jung Foundation, funded by Hamburg merchant Ernst Jung in 1967, has awarded the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, now €300,000, since 1976, and the lif ...

* 2007: Max Delbrück Medal, BerlinThomas Tuschl receives Max-Delbrück-Medal
* 2005:

Ernst Schering Prize The Ernst Schering Prize is awarded annually by the Ernst Schering Foundation for especially outstanding basic research in the fields of medicine, biology or chemistry anywhere in the world. Established in 1991 by the Ernst Schering Research Foun ...

, Berlin * 2005:

Meyenburg Prize The Meyenburg Prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in cancer research by the Meyenburg Foundation in support of the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg (DKFZ), which is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany. The pri ...

, Heidelberg * 2005: Dr. Albert Wander Gedenk Prize, Bern, Schweiz * 2003: Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, New York, USA * 2003: Co-recipient (with Craig Mello, Andrew Fire and

David Baulcombe Sir David Charles Baulcombe One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 1952) is a British plant scientist and geneticist. he is a Royal Society Research Professor and Regius Profe ...

) of the Wiley Prize in the Biomedical Sciences, The Wiley Foundation, USA * 2003: Newcomb Cleveland Prize, American Association for the Advancement of Science, USA * 2002: Eppendorf Young Investigator Award, Hamburg * 2002: Otto-Klung-Weberbank-Preis for Chemistry and Physics, Berlin

References

External links

*
Interview
with Thomas Tuschl in sciencegarden {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuschl, Thomas 1966 births Living people German biochemists German molecular biologists Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Rockefeller University faculty People from Altdorf bei Nürnberg