The Dr. Eickelberg Foundation Prize, which was awarded for the first time this year, went to Dr. Claudia Wiza from the junior research group “Signal Transduction” at the German Diabetes Centre (DDZ). In her prize-winning work “Knockdown of PRAS40 inhibits insulin action via proteasome-mediated degradation of IRS1 in primary human skeletal muscle cells” Dr. Wiza studied the mechanisms of insulin action in skeletal muscle cells and discovered a new mechanism which can lead to the development of insulin resistance and thus the development of type 2 diabetes. “We are very pleased about the awarding of the Dr. Eickelberg Foundation Prize for pioneering research,” said Prof. Dr. Michael Roden, director and scientific executive officer of the DDZ.
Dr. Wiza was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1984 and studied biology from 2003 to 2008 at the TU Kaiserslautern and RWTH Aachen. From 2009 to 2013 Dr. Wiza was a doctoral student at the DDZ and completed her doctorate with the distinction summa cum laude.
The prize of the Dr. Eickelberg Foundation, which is endowed with EUR 1500, is awarded to young scientists at the German Diabetes Centre for outstanding scientific contributions to the field of clinical and experimental diabetes research. Participation is open to postgraduates, doctoral students and postdoctoral students under the age of 40. The Foundation was founded in 2011/2012 from the estate of Dr. Gisela Eickelberg with the aim of promoting research into diabetes mellitus.