Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon, Group Leader in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, has been announced as the 2023 winner of the SCOR Young European Researcher Prize, awarded by the Fondation Recherche Alzheimer (Alzheimer Research Foundation) and the SCOR Foundation for Science. A companion prize to the European Research Grand Prize, the SCOR Young European Researcher Prize was launched in 2013 to support and encourage young researchers working in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and related syndromes.
Benjamin was recognised for several research breakthroughs, including his contributions to establishing that different tauopathies can be defined by distinct tau amyloid structures. In subsequent research, Benjamin’s group has shown that the same is true for neurodegenerative diseases characterised by TDP-43 proteinopathy, after determining the double-spiral amyloid structure of TDP-43 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and type B frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), which is markedly different from the amyloid structure of TDP-43 in type A FTLD.
Benjamin started his research group in 2019, building upon his PhD and postdoctoral research into the assembly of tau protein, and use of electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine structures of tau filaments from patient brains.
His work has been previously recognised with the 2019 Rising Star Award from Alzheimer’s Research UK and the 2022 Alzheimer Research Award from the Hans and Ilse Breuer Foundation. Benjamin was also elected onto the EMBO Young Investigator Programme this year.
The Fondation Recherche Alzheimer has previously recognised LMB in awarding the European Research Grand Prize to Neurobiology Division Group Leader Michel Goedert in 2014, and to LMB alumnae Maria Grazia Spillantini in 2021.
Further references
Benjamin’s group page
Fondation Recherche Alzheimer
SCOR Young European Researcher Prize for research into Alzheimer’s disease