Martin Blackledge of IBS Grenoble has been announced as the winner of the Ivano Bertini Award from Instruct-ERIC.
Martin was recognised for their pioneering work on intrinsically-disordered proteins using NMR. This ranges from identifying the conformational space of IDPs and their dynamic behaviour identified by varying techniques - to their interactions with highly-dynamic proteins and their roles in fundamental processes, such as viral replication.
In the true spirit of the award, Martin utilised NMR, SAXS, Molecular Dynamics, and biophysical studies on the impact of liquid-liquid phase separation on the dynamic behaviour of IDPs.
Presented by previous winner Sjors Scheres, and Eric Leonardis of Bruker Bio-Spin, Martin then gave a fantastic talk on their latest work on IDPs.
Martin said: "I am incredibly honoured and proud to receive this prestigious prize, which recognizes our work highlighting the importance of using NMR and other biophysical approaches for studying highly dynamic and disordered proteins to develop a complete understanding of molecular biology. This award is also testimony to the many brilliant scientists I have been fortunate enough to work with in my group over the last couple of decades."
Presentation of the Ivano Bertini Award: Sjors Scheres (LMB Cambridge), Martin Blackledge (IBS Grenoble, Award Winner), Eric Leonardis (Bruker BioSpin), Claudia Alén Amaro (Instruct-ERC Head of Operations).
The Ivano Bertini Award is offered by Instruct to recognise a significant achievement in frontier research that utilises an integrative structural biology approach. The award is an independently reviewed competition and commemorates Ivano Bertini, who developed powerful new methods in NMR and founded CERM in Florence.
The award of €15,000 is endowed by Bruker BioSpin which is at the forefront of NMR instrument development with increasingly broad application and measurement sensitivity.