Leopoldina honours Georg Hochberg with “ZukunftsWissen” Award
Tracking down the evolution of proteins: Leopoldina honours biochemist Georg Hochberg with the new "ZukunftsWissen" award for young scientists
How did structure and function of today's proteins evolve in the course of evolution? This is the question that biochemist Dr Georg Hochberg is investigating in his research in the field of evolutionary biochemistry. His work provides a deeper understanding of the origin of proteins, and his findings can help to better understand biochemical processes such as photosynthesis and to optimise them in the laboratory. Hochberg is being honoured for these scientific achievements with the "ZukunftsWissen" prize, which is being awarded for the first time this year by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Commerzbank Foundation. The award, which is endowed with 50,000 euros, will be presented at the Leopoldina's annual meeting in Halle (Saale) on Thursday, 26 September 2024.
Dr Georg Hochberg's research focuses on the evolution of the structure and function of the proteins that exist today. As a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of the American biologist Prof. Joseph Thornton, Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, USA, he reconstructed the evolution of individual amino acid sequences and thus created molecular family trees.
His research sheds new light on functionally unimportant protein complexes that have been conserved during evolution. This contradicts the concept of purely functional biochemistry, in which all mutations must have a selective advantage in order to survive. Hochberg's findings show that some protein complexes do not disappear during evolution, even though they have no biochemical advantage, because their dissolution would be too costly and disadvantageous.
In his current work as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Hochberg is applying the findings of evolutionary biochemistry to synthetic biochemistry research. Together with Prof. Dr. Tobias J. Erb, Leopoldina member and director of the Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, he is investigating the evolution of the enzyme Rubisco, which is responsible for the fixation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere in plants and is therefore an important driver of photosynthesis. However, Rubisco is not very efficient, as it often binds oxygen instead of CO2. By understanding the evolution of this important enzyme, synthetic biology can explore more efficient methods of photosynthesis.
Georg Hochberg (born 1987) studied biology at the University of Oxford, UK, where he obtained his PhD in 2015 at the Laboratory of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry. From 2015 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago/USA. Since 2019, Hochberg has been head of the independent Max Planck Research Group "Evolutionary Biochemistry" at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg and head of a junior research group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Marburg.
Hochberg is also a member of the Centre for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) and the Microbes for Climate (M4C) initiative, in which experts from biology, chemistry, physics and engineering are investigating the essential role of microorganisms in climate change in a transdisciplinary manner. In 2022, Hochberg received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council for his research, and in 2023 he was accepted into the Young Investigator Programme of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO).
From 2024, the Leopoldina and the Commerzbank Foundation will be awarding the new "ZukunftsWissen - the Leopoldina and Commerzbank Foundation Early Career Award" to outstanding young scientists every year. The award is endowed with 50,000 euros. The award honours scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the theme of the Leopoldina's Annual Assembly and whose research addresses the challenges of the future. The connection to the theme of the Annual Assembly can be interpreted broadly and can come from any of the disciplines represented at the Leopoldina. Interdisciplinary research is especially welcome. The prize will be awarded during the Annual Assembly and is associated with a public lecture by the prizewinner. It replaces the "Early Career Award", for which the Commerzbank Foundation provided the Leopoldina with prize money of 30,000 euros between 2010 and 2022 and which was awarded every two years during the Annual General Meeting. Further information on the prize: https://www.leopoldina.org/ueber-uns/auszeichnungen/preise-und-ehrungen/zukunftswissen/
The "ZukunftsWissen" prize will be awarded at the Leopoldina's Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 26 September 2024 in Halle (Saale). This year's event is dedicated to the topic "Origin and Beginning of Life": https://www.leopoldina.org/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung/event/3137/
Source: Joint press release from the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Commerzbank Foundation.
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