Heinrich Draeger Research Award 2011

Dr. rer. nat. Jinzhi Tan receives the Heinrich Draeger Research Award 2011 for the best scientific publication. She is awarded for her article "The SARS-unique domain (SUD) of SARS coronavirus contains two macrodomains that bind G-quadruplexes", which was published in the renowned open access journal "PLoS Pathogens" (impact factor 9.0) of the Public Library of Science (Volume 5, Issue 5, May 2009).

Dr. Tan, born in 1976 in Hebei Province, China, is a chemist and has been conducting research in the Luebeck laboratory group "Structural Basis of Viral Infections" since 2005. She deciphered the protein structure of a characteristic component of the SARS virus and thus contributed to the prerequisites for developing an antiviral inhibitor for feared future SARS outbreaks in the medium term. The laudatory speech was given by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.. Rolf Hilgenfeld, Director of the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Lübeck.

The Heinrich Draeger Research Award was established in 2004 by the Dräger family and Drägerwerk AG on the initiative of Mrs. Lisa Dräger.
Once a year, the University of Luebeck awards this prize in recognition of a particularly outstanding scientific publication based on results that were primarily generated at the university. The prize is awarded alternately to scientists from the STEM and Medicine faculties.