On January 26, 2021, it was revealed that Patrick Cramer will receive the 2021 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine

The award is one of the most presti­gious in Europe and endowed with 500,000 Swiss francs. With this prize, the Louis-Jeantet Founda­tion honours the direc­tor at the Max Planck Insti­tute (MPI) for Biophys­i­cal Chemistry for his pioneer­ing work in the field of gene transcrip­tion. Cramer’s research focuses on the molec­u­lar machines, called RNA polymerases that control this funda­men­tal process of life.

“Patrick Cramer has visual­ized the struc­tures of many of these cellu­lar copying machines in atomic detail for the first time. He demon­strated how RNA polymerases trans­late genetic infor­ma­tion and how they work as a team with other protein complexes. His ground-break­ing research provides deep insights into gene transcrip­tion with unprece­dented detail,” says Marina Rodnina, Manag­ing Direc­tor at the MPI for Biophys­i­cal Chemistry.

Congrat­u­la­tions to Patrick Cramer!