2 Alexander von Humboldt professorships go to ...( Ulrike Gaul professor of molecular b...)

Ulrike Gaul, professor of molecular biology at Rockefeller University New York, and Georgi Dvali, professor of theoretical physics at New York University and at CERN in Geneva, have been selected for the first Alexander von Humboldt professorships ever to be awarded. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt (LMU) Mnchen nominated the two scientists for this distinction, and both applications were selected by the Humboldt Foundation panel. This distinction, which comes with research funds of up to five million euros, is awarded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research. "We are very proud to be gaining Ulrike Gaul and Georgi Dvali two scientists highly sought after around the world at LMU, and to be able to offer them attractive research conditions here," says LMU president Bernd Huber. "This will allow us to raise our position in the two innovative research fields of systems biology and cosmological particle research to an internationally competitive level."

Ulrike Gaul is an internationally leading development biologist whose work on the fruit fly drosophila has contributed enormously to our understanding of gene regulation during organismic development and the role of glial cells in the nervous system. Her laboratory has discovered many new genes that control the formation of the blood-brain barrier and the efficient elimination of dying neurons by glia. In recent years, Gaul has been increasingly interested in how to decrypt and make a quantitative description of the complex genetic networks underlying embryonic pattern formation. Her work on regulating gene transcription and translation in early development, which has often involved working with physicists and bioinformaticians, is pioneering for linking organismic biology with the quantitative analysis of systems biology. Gaul will use the award money associated with the Humboldt professorship to establish a new research focus in molecular systems biolo
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