The German Stem Cell Network (GSCN)  has awarded the 2023 Publication of the Year to Ruzhica Bogeska (first author) and Michael D. Milson (corresponding author) of the Division of Experimental Hematology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and HI-STEM for their paper Inflammatory exposure drives long-lived impairment of hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal activity and accelerated aging published in the journal Cell Stem Cell in August 2022.

Ruzhica joined the editorial office of Molecular Oncology in 2021, and was promoted to Managing Editor in March 2023.  We'd like to congratulate Ruzhica and her co-authors on this award.  Ruzhica will receive her award and give a lecture at the Presidential Symposium on Thursday, 14 September 2023, at this year's GSCN Conference in Ulm.

The manuscript examines the long-term consequences of inflammation and infection challenge on hematopoietic stem cells, leading to the surprising observation that these stem cells never functionally recover from such challenges. This data supported a model where the inhibitory effect of such challenges can accumulate during an individual’s lifetime, even if the exposure to such agonists is separated by weeks, months or even years. In support of this hypothesis, mice exposed to inflammatory challenge in early to mid-life demonstrated an accelerated hematologic aging phenotype and developed features of normal human aged hematopoiesis that are not routinely observed in laboratory mice.

The GSCN has been networking stem cell researchers working in Germany nationally and internationally since 2013 and communicates their results and research to a broad public. Since 2021, the GSCN has closely cooperated with the Berlin Institutes of Health (BIH) in the jointly founded 'Dialogue Platform Stem Cell Research'. The GSCN Awards 2023 recognize outstanding stem cell researchers on their way to expanding basic research and opening new avenues for therapeutic options. The promotion of young scientists and the presentation of outstanding female scientists receive special attention at the GSCN.  The GSCN 2023 Young Investigator Award goes to Meike Hohwieler from the Institute of Molecular Oncology and Stem Cell Biology at Ulm University Hospital. The GSCN 2023 Hilde Mangold Award goes to Anne Grapin-Botton from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden.