For research on the decod­ing of the gene transcrip­tion mecha­nism using X‑ray methods

The German Röntgen Museum Remscheid-Lennep e.V. awards the Röntgen­plakette this year to Hector Fellow Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer, Direc­tor of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Multi­dis­ci­pli­nary Natural Sciences and Honorary Profes­sor at the Georg August Univer­sity of Göttin­gen, for his pioneer­ing research on the decod­ing of the gene transcrip­tion mecha­nism using X‑ray methods.

Since 1951, the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the German Roent­gen Museum has honored person­al­i­ties who have rendered outstand­ing services to the progress and dissem­i­na­tion of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen's discov­er­ies in the broad­est sense with this scien­tific award.

Prof. Patrick Cramer is a chemist and molec­u­lar biolo­gist. He researches how cells read out infor­ma­tion stored in the genome (gene transcrip­tion). He was able to decipher the three-dimen­sional struc­ture of one of the largest enzymes in the cell nucleus and thereby eluci­date essen­tial parts of the transcrip­tion mecha­nism. The decod­ing of the spatial struc­ture of RNA polymerase and transcrip­tion are milestones in molec­u­lar biology.

The Röntgen­plakette was officially awarded by the Lord Mayor on May 06, 2023 in the Minoriten­saal of the Klosterkirche in Remscheid-Lennep.