Presentation of the Eppendorf Young Investigator Award 2012 at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, on May 9, 2012

This year’s research prize awarded by the Eppendorf AG in Hamburg goes to the United Kingdom

The 2012 Eppendorf Award is the 17th research prize conferred by the Hamburg life science company. This year it was presented to Elizabeth Murchison, Ph.D. (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom). The official Award ceremony took place at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, on May 9, 2012.

With the 15,000 Euro Eppendorf Young Investigator Award which was established in 1995, Eppendorf AG honors outstanding work in biomedical research and supports young scientists in Europe up to the age of 35. The Eppendorf Award is presented in partnership with the scientific journal Nature.

The Award winner is selected by an independent committee composed of Prof. Reinhard Jahn (Chair), Prof. Dieter Häussinger, Prof. Maria Leptin and Prof. Martin J. Lohse.

Elizabeth Murchison, born 1980, receives the prize for her discoveries concerning a deadly cancer that is spreading among the endemic population of Tasmanian devils in Tasmania and threatening the survival of the species. She found that the cancers are all derived from the same clone, leading to the conclusion that cancer cells are physically transferred between animals.

The results obtained by Elizabeth Murchison are ground-breaking and offer novel approaches towards the understanding of clonal cancers. Furthermore, her findings have been instrumental for developing strategies aimed at saving the Tasmanian devil from extinction.

Dr. Dirk Ehlers (President & CEO Eppendorf AG) and Prof. Matthias Hentze (Associate Director EMBL) welcomed the audience from the scientific community, related industry and the press. The laudatio honoring Elizabeth Murchison’s achievements was held by Prof. Reinhard Jahn (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany).

Photos of the event, the laudatio and more information on the Eppendorf Award can be found at www.eppendorf.com/award

More information at www.eppendorf.com/award



About Eppendorf

Eppendorf is a leading life science company that develops and sells instruments, consumables, and services for liquid-, sample-, and cell handling in laboratories worldwide. Its product range includes pipettes and automated pipetting systems, dispensers, centrifuges, mixers, spectrometers, and DNA amplification equipment as well as ultra-low temperature freezers, fermentors, bioreactors, CO2 incubators, shakers, and cell manipulation systems. Associated consumables like pipette tips, test tubes, microtiter plates, and disposable bioreactors complement the instruments for highest quality workflow solutions.

Eppendorf products are most broadly used in academic and commercial research laboratories, e.g., in companies from the pharmaceutical and biotechnological as well as the chemical and food industries. They are also aimed at clinical and environmental analysis laboratories, forensics, and at industrial laboratories performing process analysis, production, and quality assurance.

Eppendorf was founded in Hamburg, Germany in 1945 and has about 2,600 employees worldwide. The company has subsidiaries in 23 countries and is represented in all other markets by distributors.





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