Neuroscientist Dr. Mari Sepp receives Otto Schmeil Prize of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Dr. Mari Sepp has been awarded the Otto Schmeil Prize 2024, endowed with 15,000 euros, for her research on the cellular development and evolution of the mammalian cerebellum. The neuroscientist is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University. The prize, donated by the Schmeil Foundation to promote young scientists in biological and medical research, is awarded every two years by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
In her work, Mari Sepp used single-cell sequencing technologies to decode the cellular diversity in the cerebellum of humans, mice and opossums and showed that the programs defining cell types in the developing cerebellum have been preserved for at least 160 million years. With her research, Dr. Sepp also identified genes whose expression changed in the cell types during evolution. Some of these genes may contribute to the differences in cerebellar structure and function between species. Her research findings expand our understanding of the evolution of the mammalian brain, said the jury in its statement on the awarding of the prize.
Mari Sepp studied in Tartu and Tallinn (Estonia), where she received her doctorate in 2012 in the field of genetic technology. Since 2017, Dr. Sepp has been working in the “Evolutionary Genomics” research group led by Prof. Dr. Henrik Kaessmann at the Center for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University. Her research there focuses on the molecular and cellular origins and evolution of vertebrate organs.
The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities is also the State Academy of Baden-Württemberg. As a non-university research institution and learned society, it promotes interdisciplinary exchange between established and young scientists. The Schmeil Foundation has been awarding the prize of the same name to promote young scientists in biological and medical research since 2016. The award commemorates the biologist Otto Schmeil (1860 to 1943) and is presented every two years.
The total of eight prizes from the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities were presented during the Academy's annual celebration on June 8, 2024.
Comentarios