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EMBL Director Matthias Hentze receives 2025 Otto Warburg Medal

Award recognises pioneering achievements in RNA research.

Headshot of male scientist against an abstract illustration of blues and greens.
EMBL Director Matthias Hentze is the 2025 recipient of the Otto Warburg Medal, regarded as the highest award for biochemists and molecular biologists in Germany. Credit: EMBL

The German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) and Elsevier/BBA have recognised Matthias Hentze with the 2025 Otto Warburg Medal for his outstanding contributions to understanding how RNA-protein networks control gene expression.

From the award announcement, “Matthias Hentze is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of 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 Otto Warburg Medal, named in honour of the German biochemist and 1931 Nobel laureate for Physiology and Medicine, has been presented to international scientists since 1963, including seven Nobel laureates. It honours pioneering achievements in fundamental biochemical and molecular biological research. The Otto Warburg Medal is regarded as the highest award for biochemists and molecular biologists in Germany. 

Hentze has been an EMBL group leader since 1989 and is the first scientist working at EMBL to receive this honour. His present research explores the principle of riboregulation, the direct control of protein functions by RNA. Remarkably in the context of Warburg’s concerning metabolism and respiration in cancer cells, Hentze has discovered multiple examples of riboregulation of metabolic enzymes.

The award includes a lecture that Hentze will present at the upcoming Mosbacher Kolloquium in March 2025, titled, ‘From Otto Warburg to Riboregulation: a 100-year journey in metabolism’.

Read the full announcement on the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology website.

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Hentze Group

Otto Warburg Medal

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