The course for organ health is set in the
early embryo. This year's laureate has shown that
specialized immune cells from the yolk sac accompany organ development and
contribute to maintaining their health throughout life. For Elvira Mass, impaired
function of these immune cells might cause many diseases.
Frankfurt am Main. Developmental biologist
Professor Elvira Mass, Ph.D. from the Life and Medical Sciences Institute
(LIMES) at the University of Bonn, receives the 2021 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig
Darmstaedter Prize for Young Researchers, which is endowed with €60,000. The award ceremony in
Paulskirche, which is traditionally held on March 14th, Paul Ehrlich's
birthday, has been canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Elvira Mass will be
honored next year together with the award winners of 2022.
For organs to stay healthy and functional, they must
be constantly surveilled for abnormalities. Until a few years ago, it was believed that
this task is performed by immune cells originating from the bone marrow. In a series of elegant genetic
labelling experiments, Mass has shown that these cells are mainly yolk sac-derived
progenitor cells that migrate to the developing organs, where they immediately differentiate
and self-maintain for a lifetime. The reason for their longevity is still a mystery. These immune cells are referred to as tissue-resident
macrophages and belong to our innate immune system. Their primary job is to
scavenge anything that does not belong to a healthy organ. However, they also
produce a broad range of bioactive molecules and growth factors, ensuring that tissues
are not only 'tidy' but grow, develop, and function.
"The special achievement of Elvira Mass is to
have contributed to an important change in perspective when looking at the
function of organs," writes the Scientific Council, chaired by Professor
Thomas Boehm, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and
Epigenetics in Freiburg, in substantiating its decision. “In order to understand
how organs develop and what keeps them healthy, one no longer only looks at the
bone marrow, but also at the yolk sac and thus at a completely different
population of macrophages. This observation has important implications for medicine,
because organ-specific defects might be associated with malfunctioning tissue-resident
macrophages originally derived from the yolk sac".
Mass has provided evidence for the
health-promoting function of resident macrophages in the mouse brain. Her attempt to
manipulate microglia, as the brain-specific macrophages are called, were stimulated
by the findings in patients suffering from a rare form of cancer called histiocytosis. This
cancer arises from mutated macrophages, which multiply out of control. Many patients
suffering from histiocytoses eventually develop neurodegenerative symptoms or behavioural
deficits. Mass introduced the mutation typical for histiocytosis specifically into yolk
sac-derived tissue-resident macrophages of mice and followed the development of
the animals. She found that the mutated microglia cells no longer carried out their
traditional tasks but instead attacked and eliminated neurons in their
vicinity. Eventually, this led to paralysis demonstrating that mutated microglia can cause
neurodegeneration in mice.
With funding recently awarded by the European
Research Council, Mass will investigate which environmental factors change the
epigenetic imprinting of the yolk sac-derived tissue-resident macrophages and
how these changes affect the health of organs. To this end, she will, among
other things, examine the influence of nanoplastics on macrophages. Particles that are
smaller than 500 nanometers enter the embryo's blood via the placenta and could
potentially damage the supporting function of the tissue-resident macrophages.
Short biography of Professor Dr. Elvira Mass
Elvira Mass (34) studied biology at the University
of Bonn and did her Ph.D thesis at the Life and Medical Sciences Institute
(LIMES) in Bonn. In 2014, she moved to Frederic Geissmann's laboratory at King's College in
London and followed him a few months later to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center in New York. From there she returned to the LIMES Institute in
2017 as a group leader. In 2019, she became W2 Professor for
"Integrated Immunology" at the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg. In 2020, she switched
to a W2 / W3 professorship at the LIMES Institute. Mass has received
several awards, including the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize in 2020, which is considered
the most important award for young scientists in Germany.
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig
Darmstaedter Prize for Young Researchers
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
for Young Researchers, awarded for the first time in 2006, is conferred once a
year by the Paul Ehrlich Foundation on a young investigator working in Germany
for his or her outstanding achievements in the field of biomedical research.
The prize money must be used for research purposes. University faculty members
and leading scientists at German research institutions are eligible for
nomination. The selection of the prizewinner is made by the Scientific Council
on a proposal by the eight-person selection committee.
The Paul Ehrlich Foundation
The
Paul Ehrlich Foundation is a legally dependent foundation which is managed in a
fiduciary capacity by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Goethe
University, Frankfurt. The Honorary Chairman of the Foundation, which was
established by Hedwig Ehrlich in 1929, is Professor Dr. Katja Becker, president
of the German Research Foundation, who also appoints the elected members of the
Scientific Council and the Board of Trustees. The Chairman of the Scientific
Council is Professor Thomas Boehm, Director at the Max Planck Institute of
Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, the Chair of the Board of Trustees
is Professor Dr. Jochen Maas, Head of Research and Development and Member of
the Management Board, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH. Professor Wilhelm
Bender, in his function as Chair of the Association of Friends and Sponsors of
the Goethe University, is Member of the Scientific Council. The President of
the Goethe University is at the same time a member of the Board of Trustees.
Further
information:
You can obtain selected
publications, the list of publications and a photograph of the prizewinner from
Dr. Hildegard Kaulen, phone: +49 (0) 6122/52718, e-mail:
h.k@kaulen-wissenschaft.de and at www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de.
Background on the award of the 2021 Paul Ehrlich
and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Young Researchers to Professor Elvira Mass,
Ph.D (PDF)
