Next Autumn the International Foundation for Research in Paraplegia (IRP) will award the IRP Schellenberg Research Prize to two famous scientists. The distinction with an amount of CHF 100'000 will be distributed in equal shares to Prof. Claire Jacob, from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and Prof. Magdalena Götz, from the Helmholtz Centre in Munich, Germany. 

By awarding every two years the IRP Schellenberg Research Prize, the IRP aims at rewarding scientists for their particular contribution to the development of research in paraplegia. 

Only 3 women since 2003
Among 15 laureates of the IRP Schellenberg Research Prize, there were only 3 women. This year two exceptional female scientists are honored simultaneously which is all the more satisfying to encourage women, who are more and more numerous to choose a career in scientific research, to persevere in this field. 

Prof. Claire Jacob's career path
After achieving two doctorate's in France, in Pharmacology and Biomedical Sciences, Claire Jacob held two postdoctoral positions in University of California in San Francisco and at the ETH Zürich. In Zürich she got fascinated about research in the field of the peripheral nervous system, in particular Schwann cells. In  2004, a ski accident rendered her quadriplegic. However, after several months of intensive rehabilitation in Basel, she was able again to move her arms and legs. This recovery allowed her to go back to her research activities. The return was however not simple because of neuropathic pain due to her accident and because she had to relearn very precise movements, necessary for her work. In 2012, she received an SNF Professorship grant that allowed her to set up her laboratory in the Deparment of Biology at the University of Fribourg. The same year she received the prestigious Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize, also awarded by the SNF. In 2014 her work about nervous system plasticity benefited from an IRP Research Grant that will be renewed in 2018. Her laboratory works on the functions of myelinating cells in the regeneration of peripheral and central nervous systems after a lesion. 
 

More information about Jacob Group Researches

Award Ceremony
IRP Schellenberg Research Prize 2018
Thursday, 27 September 2018 at 12.00
Restaurant Safran Zunft, Basel, Switzerland
Compulsory registration to: bbrunner@irp.ch

_{Source: IRPNEURONEWS, NR 51/ SUMMER 2018
Photo by Jesper Aggergaard on Unsplash}