Molecular Biologist Bruce Edgar and Stem Cell Researcher Andreas Trumpp Acknowledged for Achievements in Life Sciences

Molecular biologist Prof. Dr. Bruce Edgar and cancer and stem cell researcher Prof. Dr. Andreas Trumpp have been elected to EMBO membership in recognition of their outstanding scientific contribution. EMBO’s approximately 1,500 members are leaders in their research fields around the world.

Bruce Edgar leads a department within the alliance of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH) of Heidelberg University. With his team, he focuses primarily on the mechanisms of cell division. In their studies of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the scientists have discovered a number of genes and signaling pathways which regulate growth and multiplication of cells in the living organism in various organs and tissues. Last year, Edgar was awarded a five-year European Research Council Advanced Grant of 2.68 million euros for his research work. Bruce Edgar studied biology at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and earned a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Washington in Seattle. He subsequently worked at the University of California in San Francisco, U.S.A., and at the University of Oxford, U.K. From 1993 to 2009, he served in various capabilities at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and as a Professor at the University of Washington, interrupted in 2000/2001 by a stay at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2009, Heidelberg University and DKFZ jointly succeeded within the DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance in recruiting the U.S.A.-born scientist from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle to Heidelberg.

Andreas Trumpp is head of the Division of Stem Cells and Cancer at DKFZ, which is also part of the DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, and is an internationally renowned expert for cancer stem cells. These cells are suspected to be involved in carcinogenesis, tumor growth and metastasis. They are often resistant to conventional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy and, therefore, are also suspected to be responsible for the recurrence of tumors after seemingly successful treatment. Trumpp and his group were able to show that dormant stem cells can be woken up by treatment with interferon-alpha and thus be made susceptible to subsequent chemotherapy. In the blood of breast cancer patients, Trumpp and his co-workers have also detected metastasis-forming tumor stem cells. By characterizing these in detail, they intend to develop targeted drugs that prevent metastasis or efficiently fight existing metastatic tumors. Trumpp is also director of HI-STEM, a non-profit institute founded jointly by DKFZ and the Dietmar Hopp Foundation as part of the Top Cluster competition. Trumpp, who was born in Heilbronn, Germany, completed his Ph.D. thesis at EMBL in Heidelberg, before he went on to work at the University of California in San Francisco and the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research in Lausanne. In 2008, he joined DKFZ.

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), founded in 1964, advances basic research in molecular biology in Europe. New members are proposed and elected by other members in recognition of outstanding scientific achievements. EMBO Members include 57 Nobel Prize laureates, including Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann, winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine, and Harald zur Hausen, Medicine Nobel Prize winner of
2008. This year, 46 life scientists from 14 countries have been recognized by being elected to EMBO membership.