Dr Melina Schuh to receive RMS Pearse Prize
The RMS is very pleased to announce Dr Melina Schuh as the latest recipient of the Pearse Prize – a prestigious international honour in the field of histochemistry and life sciences.
Melina is a ground-breaking biochemist known for her studies on how chromosome segregation errors occur during the meiotic divisions of mammalian eggs, and what causes the age-related decline in female fertility.
She is currently Director of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, Germany, where she heads the Department of Meiosis. Her laboratory has developed a new method for acute degradation of endogenous proteins called Trim-Away. She has also revealed the cause of spindle instability in human oocytes, and discovered how mRNAs and proteins are stored in oocytes for the early embryo.
Melina is co-founder of Ovo Labs, a biotech startup developing therapies to combat egg-quality decline and chromosomal errors in human oocytes. She is also an honorary professor at the University of Göttingen.
Melina obtained her PhD in 2008 at the University of Heidelberg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), where she established methods for high-resolution microscopy of live mouse oocytes in the group of Jan Ellenberg. In 2009 she became a group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), where her group carried out the first studies of meiosis in live human oocytes and developed strategies for high-content screens for meiotic genes in mammals.
Melina is a member of the Leopoldina and the EMBO and has received multiple awards and accolades, including the Leibniz Prize, the EMBO Gold Medal, and the European Young Investigator Award.
About the Pearse Prize
The Pearse Prize was established by the RMS Histochemistry and Cytochemistry Section (now Life Sciences) in 1982 to honour the contribution made to histochemistry by Professor AGE Pearse. The prize is awarded to a scientist who has made a significant contribution to histochemistry and life sciences and is still active in their field.
It is typically awarded every four or five years (and not more frequently than every two years) and only when it is felt there is a suitable candidate. It is generally regarded as one of the international honours in histochemistry and the life sciences, with an emphasis on microscopy.