BINDER awards 2009 innovation prize

Univ. Prof. Ludger Hengst, director of the section for medical biochemistry at the Innsbruck Biocenter, was recently awarded the prestigious Binder-innovation prize for 2009. The prize, which was presented to the 1st Combined Annual Meeting of the German and Swiss Societies for Cellular Biology in Constance, honors the biochemist's research in the area of cellular cycle control over the last 15 years. The results of Prof. Hengst's work are particularly important in the field of cancer research. The special areas of research into cell proliferation and cell death in tumors conducted in Innsbruck are also a strong scientific environment which is ideal for Prof. Hengst's work.

Slowing cell division
Uncontrolled cell division plays a central role in the development of tumors. The center of the mechanism that controls cell division is formed by protein kinases of the family of cycline-dependent kinases (CDKs). CDK inhibitors acts as the brake for these motors by bonding to the CDKs and deactivating them. In this way the CDK inhibitors prevent uncontrolled cell division. Prof. Ludger Hengst discovered one of these CDK-inhibiting proteins, p27Kip1, some years ago and as a result worked out various mechanisms that control the expression and function of this growth-inhibiting protein. This enabled him to demonstrate that Src, Lyn and BCR-Abl, well-known proteins that can trigger cancer, directly change p27Kip1. The change deactivates and destabilizes the CDK inhibitor and as a result can drive uncontrolled cell division. Also interesting was the discovery that the function of the protein can be changed by this activity to such an extent that cells can be stimulated to divide. It has been experimentally demonstrated that BCR-Abl, an oncogen responsible for many cases of leukemia, deactivates p27Kip1 by this mechanism and stimulates cells to increased division or is correlated with an increased occurrence of tyrosinkinase Src in breast cancer cells with reduced CDK inhibitor p27Kip1 in the cell nucleus and increased cell division. This enables new types of therapy to be developed for leukemia and for breast cancer. "Our researches indicate a new direct molecular connection between important oncogens and the central cell cycle mechanism," says Prof. Hengst of the results.

Prize for outstanding services
The prize, supported by BINDER GmbH, is awarded by the German Society for Cell Biology (DGZ) for outstanding work in the field of cell biology. Prof. Hengst, appointed to the Medical University of Innsbruck in 2005, is the second scientist working in Austria to receive the BINDER innovation prize since 1998. He was previously at the Max Planck Institute in Martinsried near Munich and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. The innovation prize is financed by BINDER GmbH, a specialty manufacturer of incubation cabinets for scientific and industrial laboratories. The prize-winner is selected by an independent jury of experts from the German Society of Cell Biology.

"Innovation means growth and success. In Germany we not only manufacture top-quality products but we also want to promote the development of a wide range of ideas in scientific research. With the ever-increasing complexity of technological interconnections, innovations can no longer be developed by someone working alone and therefore the BINDER innovation prize also stands for our close relationship with science," says Peter Michael Binder.