The Körber Prize for European Science 2022 goes to Anthony Hyman
30.06.2022 11:12
The Körber Prize for European Science 2022, worth one million euros, will go to the British cell biologist Anthony Hyman. In 2009, Hyman and his team discovered a completely new state of biological matter during studies on single-cell embryos of a nematode: proteins can accumulate locally in high concentrations in the cell fluid. These “condensates” resemble tiny drops. They form dynamically, sometimes in a matter of seconds, and are usually broken down again quickly. When breakdown disorders occur - often age-related - toxic substances can build up in affected cells and trigger neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS or Alzheimer's. Hyman is now looking for new drugs that could cure these diseases.
Condensates form in healthy human cells, among other things, when they are exposed to “stress” – such as poisoning, radiation or heat: So-called stress granules then reduce the activity of the cell in a kind of lockdown strategy in order to prevent permanent damage. For example, neurotransmitters that are responsible for signal transmission in the synapses collect in condensates in the brain. An estimated third of the molecules in the cell nucleus are also organized in membraneless condensates.
The study of condensates - initiated by Hyman's groundbreaking discovery in 2009 - is still in its early stages, but is now the fastest growing pioneering field in cell biology. Condensates hold the key to some of the biggest open questions in the field. Researchers around the world are trying to uncover the secrets of the complex molecular interactions in the droplets. Pharmaceutical research is also heavily involved - in the hope of being able to influence condensation formation using drugs and cure diseases such as Alzheimer's or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). In both cases, the cause of the disease is condensates that have solidified into toxic deposits.
Anthony Hyman, 60, was born in the Israeli city of Haifa. After studying zoology at the British University of Cambridge, he received his doctorate from King's College in 1987 on embryonic cell divisions of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. He went to the University of California in San Francisco as a postdoc. In 1993, Hyman became a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. In 1999 he was one of the founding members of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, which he still leads today together with a team of directors. He has been a Fellow of the British Royal Society since 2007, an international member of the American National Academy of Sciences since 2020 and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina since 2021.
Hyman likes to explain the scientific importance of condensate research using the example of a village: The villagers work in different places, for example in the bakery or in the vegetable shop. Cells are organized in a similar way. Proteins and RNA of a cell work together in certain areas of the cell, including the condensates, and fulfill different functions there.
Hyman's research approach is therefore more complicated than the traditional one: While the molecules in the condensates interact biochemically as usual, the droplets are also subject to the laws of biophysics. They form through a so-called phase transition - similar to how water turns into ice when it is cold. The higher concentration of proteins in the condensates causes their density to increase. They then behave similarly to drops of oil in a vinaigrette. Oil and vinegar do not mix perfectly. If you let the dressing stand, the oil droplets separated by the energy of stirring gradually combine to form larger drops until after a few hours all the oil floats to the top again.
A similar observation led to the discovery of condensates in 2009, which represent a fundamentally new state of biological matter. Hyman and his interdisciplinary team developed a whole arsenal of methods to observe condensates and better understand their function. “We combine concepts from molecular biology, physical chemistry and soft matter physics,” explains the award winner.
Hyman wants to use the funds from the Körber Prize to further refine the methods in the future. He also wants to find the amino acid codes that influence the biophysical behavior of proteins and explain what goes wrong in neurodegenerative diseases. He is convinced that “the cell biological understanding of condensation formation will have an important influence on future drug development”. That's why Hyman is also co-founder of the Boston/Dresden company Dewpoint Therapeutics, which, among other things, researches the effects of medications on condensates. She is primarily working on preventing the formation of disease-causing deposits with suitable medicines.