Since 1963, the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) has been awarding the Otto Warburg Medal to outstanding scientists for their lifetime scientific achievements. Prof. Dr. Matthias Hentze, Director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), was selected as the winner of the Otto Warburg Medal 2025. Matthias Hentze is one of the world's leading researchers in the field of molecular mRNA-specific translational control, a central topic in biochemistry and cell biology. He is a pioneer in the discovery and research of RNA binding proteins and has made a decisive contribution to the concept of riboregulation and the methodological progress in this field. The prize is endowed with 25,000 euros and will be awarded to him on March 21, 2025, during the 76th Mosbach Colloquium of the GBM.

 For more than three decades, Matthias Hentze has shaped the understanding of RNA biology and made fundamental contributions to the elucidation of the mechanisms how mRNA is regulated in the cytoplasm through post-transcriptional interactions with RNA binding proteins. His groundbreaking discovery of iron regulatory proteins (IRPs), which bind to specific RNA sequences (iron responsive elements, IRE) and control iron metabolism at the post-transcriptional level, led to the realization that cytosolic, RNA-based regulatory systems regulate a variety of eukaryotic mRNAs. These systems play a central role in developmental biology, cell differentiation and the development of cancer or neurodegenerative diseases, respectively. These findings have contributed to RNA also being recognized as an important therapeutic target structure. Hentze was a pioneer to establish computer-based methods for the identification of RNA elements in proteins.  The “RNA Interactome Capture” methodology made it possible to capture all cellular RNA binding proteins in an unbiased proteomics approach. With the innovative “RBDmap” method, Hentze made it possible to identify novel RNA-binding motifs in proteins, but also to generate mutations in these proteins that selectively prevent RNA binding without impairing the actual protein function.

Matthias Hentze studied medicine at the University of Münster and at several universities in the UK. His doctoral thesis with Professor von Figura in Münster investigated the biogenesis, maturation and transport of lysosomal enzymes. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked with Professor Richard D. Klausner at the renowned National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda (Maryland, USA) before moving to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg as a scientific group leader. Matthias Hentze is the current director of the EMBL and Professor of Medical Molecular Biology at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, where he is co-director of the "Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit” (MMPU). In addition, he is an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Australian Academy of Science, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the editorial boards of several prestigious international journals and the scientific boards of renowned research institutes in Germany and abroad.

 The Otto Warburg Medal is considered one of the highest awards in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology in Germany. Since 1963, it has been awarded annually by the GBM to deserving bioscientists. The awardees include numerous Nobel Prize winners, such as Emmanuelle Charpentier, Randy Schekman, James Rothman and Kurt Wüthrich.

Since 2012, the Society has been working closely with the journal group Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) of the Elsevier publishing house and Elsevier itself, a leading global company for scientific information and data analysis, which also sponsors the prize money of 25,000 euros. In the words of Prof. Daniel Otzen, the current editor-in-chief of the BBA journals, “BBA is very proud to support one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of biochemistry”.

The award ceremony will take place during the 76th Mosbach Colloquium of the GBM on Friday, March 21, 2025, starting at 5 pm. Information on the confer ence can be found on the website.