LS2 Awards

Lelio Orci Award 2024 

Prof. Dr. Anne Spang (Biozentrum, University of Basel) will receive the Lelio Orci Award 2024 for her pioneering work in intracellular organization. 

The award was established by Lelio Orci, Emeritus Professor at the University of Geneva (Faculty of Medicine) in 2015. Its objective has been to honour an outstanding scientist for her/his research achievements in Cell Biology.

The late Lelio Orci would have been undoubtedly pleased with Prof. Spang’s rigorous pursuit of knowledge and novel discoveries regarding compartmentalization of cellular organelles, proteins, and mRNA. The Lelio Orci Award jury also greatly appreciated her ambition to study these processes under various conditions and in multiple organisms.

Dr. Anne Spang received her training in chemical engineering and biochemistry in Germany and France. She obtained her PhD in the group of Elmar Schiebel at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry (Germany) and then joined the lab of Randy Schekman at UC Berkeley (USA) as a postdoctoral researcher. She returned to Germany in 1999 to become an independent group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society. She obtained a professorship at the University of Basel, Biozentrum in 2005 and was elected as an EMBO member in 2009, an ASCB Fellow in 2020, and a member of the German National Academy of Science, Leopoldina in 2021. 

Anne’s work interconnects biochemistry, genetics, and molecular, cell, and developmental biology. Her research focuses on how intracellular traffic and RNA localization, translation, and metabolism regulate cellular asymmetry and stress responses. 

The award lecture titled “Mechanisms of Intracellular Compartmentalization” will take place during the LS2 Annual Meeting 2025. Please join us on February 12th at 09:45 to celebrate Anne’s achievements! 

Congratulations Anne!

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Friedrich Miescher Award 2025 

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Claudia Keller Valsecchi (Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz, DE) and Prof. Dr. Li Tang (EPFL) will be awarded the Friedrich Miescher Award 2025 for their outstanding achievements in biochemistry.

Dr. Claudia Keller Valsecchi completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a focus on molecular biology at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. She moved on to Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) in Basel, where she first received her MSc and then a PhD in Biochemistry, specializing in epigenetic gene regulation and chromatin. She then joined the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg as a postdoc, supported by the Human Frontier Science Program fellowship. She has headed a research group at the IMB in Mainz since May 2020 and will join Biozentrum at the University of Basel as an Assistant Professor in August 2025. Her research focuses on sex chromosomes and gene dose changes. Her team works on the molecular processes that ensure the “equality” of the maternal and paternal genomes and examines their role in evolution and human diseases. dscf0293-1.jpg
   

Prof. Dr. Li Tang received his B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University, China, in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, in 2012, under the supervision of Prof. Jianjun Cheng. Afterward, he became a CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Darrell Irvine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2016, he joined the Institutes of Bioengineering and Materials Science & Engineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, with promotion to Associate Professor in 2022. His research focuses on developing multidimensional immunoengineering approaches for enhanced cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Tang is the recipient of multiple international research prizes, the most recent being the CAB Mid-Career Investigator Award (2024), the Biomaterials Award for Young Investigators (2024), and the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant (2018). He was also named in the MIT Technology Review’s "Top 35 Innovators under Age 35" list of China region (2020).

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In the name of the entire LS2 jury committee, we congratulate Dr. Claudia Keller Valsecchi and Prof. Dr. Li Tang for receiving this prestigious award! 

The award ceremony and lectures titled "Epigenetics of Sex Differences" and "Type 2 Immunity May Hold Key to Long-Term Cancer Remission" will take place during the LS2 Annual Meeting 2025 on Thursday, February 13th, from 16:10 on. 

Please join us in congratulating the awardees!

Friedrich Miescher Award - Call 2026

We are very happy to open the call for the Friedrich Miescher Award 2026.

This award is intended to honour young biochemists (under 40) for outstanding achievements in biochemistry.

The deadline for nominations is October 31st, 2025.

Download the PDF below for more details.

Lelio Orci Award - Call 2025

We are opening the call for nominations for the Lelio Orci Award 2025, one of the most prestigious prizes in the life sciences in Switzerland.

Please enter your nominations HERE. You will have to provide: the ORCID ID of the nominee, a brief biosketch (max 1000 char.), a justification for nomination (e.g., novel contributions and impact on their field), a short description of major achievements (max 1500 char.), and a list of 3-5 most important publications (max 1500 char.). 

The deadline to nominate is August 10, 2025.

All details are in the attached PDF.

Young Investigator Award by the "Stiftung für Physiologie" (former Oetliker Foundation)

Criteria for the Young Investigator Award participation

General
- Only members of the LS2 section Physiology may participate in the contest.
- Participants shall be employed in Switzerland.
- In the registration form for the Annual Physiology Meeting, you may indicate which format you prefer, poster or oral presentation. Due to organizational constraints, your presentation may be scheduled for a different format, but your wishes will be followed whenever possible. 

Abstract Content
- The abstract should be understandable for non-specialists. 
- General physiological relevance of the work should be emphasized. 
- Methods should be discussed only where required for understanding the work.
Participants in the Young Investigator Award should register for the meeting prior to abstract submission.

Assessment
- Each abstract will be read by the jury members which will attribute 0-10 points. Eight abstracts with the highest mean number of points will be selected for oral presentation.
- The number of points attributed for the abstract will count as 50 % for the final score.
- The average mark based on the criteria for oral presentation (see below) brings another 50 % to the final score.

Presentation
1. Poster: A 3 min blitz presentation (including discussion) will be given for the full audience (Power point). The posters can be visited during the lunch break.
2Oral presentation: Duration: 10 min presentation + 5 min discussion.
Criteria that will be taken in consideration by the jury: Quality of content, Systematics of the presentation, Clarity of expression, Respect for time limits, Communication skills with the audience, Quality of slides / tables / graphs, Quality of replies to questions.

Prizes (as on January 2025)
- 1st prize Oral presentation, PhD student
- 1st prize Oral presentation, junior postdoc
- 2st prize Oral presentation, PhD student
- 2st prize Oral presentation, junior postdoc
- Best poster, PhD student
- Best poster, junior postdoc

The final number of prizes and categories will be reviewed every year by the "Stiftung für Physiologie" and it will be announced on the LS2 Physiology Meeting of the corresponding year. 

* We will take your academic net age into account according to SNSF guidelines (More information HERE

Full Regulations of LS2 Awards can be found in LS2 Bylaws and Regulations here.

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