Kortemme awarded International Feodor Lynen Medal from the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences professor Tanja Kortemme, PhD, was awarded the prestigious International Feodor Lynen Medal in recognition of her contributions to the field of protein design and her innovation in integrating computational and experimental methodologies.

The award from the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was presented on March 20, 2025, during the 76th Mosbacher Kolloquium in Mosbach/Baden, Germany, an annual event that fosters scientific exchange among experts in biochemistry and molecular biology. This year's event, themed “AI-Driven (R)evolution in Structural Biology and Protein Design,” highlighted the impact of artificial intelligence on deepening understanding and engineering of protein structures and functions.

“I am very honored by this award,” said Kortemme. “It is a wonderful recognition of the work of the graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in my group at UCSF, who are driving ambitious, creative and important discovery and engineering projects at the interfaces of AI, physics and biology.”

Kortemme, who is also vice dean of research at the School of Pharmacy, delivered a lecture titled “De novo protein design: From new structures to programmable molecular and cellular functions.” Her presentation delved into the creation of novel protein structures and their applications in engineering molecular and cellular functions.

“Tanja's work exemplifies the very best of UCSF science — pioneering, collaborative and transformative,” said Dean Kathy Giacomini, PhD, BSPharm. “Her ability to merge computational and experimental methods to design new proteins is not only remarkable but also highly influential for the future of medicine and biotechnology.”

The Feodor Lynen Medal, named after the Nobel laureate who made seminal contributions to the understanding of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism, is awarded each year to an international scientist who has demonstrated excellence in biochemistry and molecular biology. Previous UCSF recipients have included Henry Bourne, MD; Peter Walter, PhD; Cynthia Kenyon, PhD; and Wendell Lim, PhD.

Kortemme has significantly advanced understanding of protein dynamics and has led to the development of proteins with tailored functions. Her research seeks to invent approaches to engineer new biological functions at multiple scales, ranging from atomic details to macromolecular machines to cellular processes. By building new functions through a combination of computational design and experimental engineering, she hopes to learn how molecular design principles shape systems-level properties of biological functions.

Kortemme’s research also has explored how molecular "switch" proteins control essential biological processes, such as cell signaling and transport. A study she co-authored with Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) director Nevan Krogan, PhD, investigated how small proteins called GTPases, which act like molecular on-off switches, achieve precise control despite interacting with many different cellular partners. Their findings suggest that proteins can fine-tune their behavior through subtle, long-distance changes — insights that may help explain the effects of disease mutations and inspire new strategies for drug design.

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