Katrin Eichelbaum, former predoctoral fellow, passed away on 30 March 2017 aged 36.

With incredible sadness we received the news that Katrin Eichelbaum passed away on 30 March 2017, at the age of 36.

Katrin came to EMBL in 2008 as the first PhD student in the lab of Jeroen Krijgsveld in the Genome Biology Unit. During this period, she played a crucial role in setting up the proteomic infrastructure, from which the people coming after her benefitted enormously. During her PhD work, Katrin pioneered new areas in proteomics, reflected by several publications that are now highly cited. In addition, as a broadly interested and enthusiastic scientist, she played a key role in numerous collaborations at EMBL and beyond. After graduating, Katrin moved to the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin in 2013 to join the lab of Matthias Selbach. Not long after, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she fought with all the optimism and positive energy that characterised her, however it was a battle that she could not win. Tragically, her two-year old son, who was born with a severe handicap, died just two days before her.

It is difficult to come to terms with the loss of such a creative and promising scientist, a warm and inspiring person, and a dear colleague and friend. Our thoughts are with Katrin’s husband, family and friends.

by Jeroen Krijgsveld, Alfredo Castello, Eileen Furlong, Matthias Hentze, Helke Hillebrand