Helleday Laboratory

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Maurice Michel awarded the Nature - Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators 2023

26 June 2023

Assistant Professor Maurice Michel 
Photo: Oliver Mortusewicz

Maurice Michel, Associate Professor at the Helleday laboratory is the winner of the Nature Eppendorf award for 2023. 

According to the award judges, Maurice Michel has showed that binding of a small molecule to the active site of a DNA repair enzyme not only increases its activity but also prompts it to carry out a reaction not found in the free protein, leading to enhanced DNA repair after oxidative damage. Currently Maurice Michel is focusing on broadening this technology by investigating other enzymes and biomedical reaction pathways, with the hope of finding new strategies for rerouting or reducing oxidative DNA damage according to individual needs.  

The Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators was first established in 1995. It acknowledges outstanding contributions to biomedical research in Europe based on methods of molecular biology, including novel analytical concepts. The Award is presented in partnership with Nature. 

Read more about the Nature Eppendorf award here: https://www.nature.com/nature/awards/eppendorf

We cracked the detail mechanism of how MTHFD1/2 inhibitors work. 

03 April 2023

We are extremely proud to publish in Nature Metabolism the detailed mechanism how MTHFD1/2 inhibitors work and why they specifically kill cancer cells. This constitutets a new major attack on cancer and we are excited to see how it works in the clinic. 

Read full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-023-00771-5