Katja Röper, a scientist in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has been elected as member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO).
EMBO’s mission is the promotion of excellence in life science. Its community includes over 1900 researchers who provide career support, exchange scientific information and help build a research environment where scientists can flourish. New members are elected annually by the existing membership.
At the LMB, Katja investigates the mechanisms that transform epithelial sheets of cells into complex, three-dimensional organs. Her group has provided new insights into how the cytoskeleton regulates cell shape, and how groups of neighbouring cells coordinate their shapes and movements to sculpt a tissue into the appropriate architecture. Katja’s research focuses on the development of tubular organs. In mammals, these include the intestinal tract, kidneys, liver, lungs, and vasculature. Understanding tubular organ formation has important clinical implications because defects in tube formation and tube homeostasis can cause severe diseases such as Spina Bifida or Polycystic Kidney Disease.
Katja commented, “Election to EMBO by my colleagues is a wonderful acknowledgement of my lab’s scientific contributions. I am grateful to my past and current lab members for helping to create a dynamic and stimulating environment that facilitates new discoveries.”
Before joining the LMB in 2011, Katja was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and started her lab at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Congratulations also to LMB alumnus Tom Baden, who was also elected as member of the EMBO this year. He was a postdoc in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division from 2008 to 2010 and he is now Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Sussex.
Further references
Katja’s page
EMBO press release
Previous EMBO awards at the LMB