Sydney Brenner Medal - Past winners#

2025 Winner Markus Ralser#

Markus Ralser was born in South Tyrol (Italy), he studied Genetics and Molecular Biology in Salzburg (Austria), and completed a PhD in neurodegenerative disorders at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (Germany). After being trained in mass spectrometry at VU Amsterdam (Netherlands), he started a Junior group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, which he eventually moved to the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2011. Markus then has been a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, London since 2013. In 2018, he became Einstein Professor of Biochemistry, and is a Head of Biochemistry here at the Charitè University Medicine (the joint medical faculty of Humboldt and Free state Universities in Berlin, Germany).

For more information please see this document

---

2023 Winner Eugene W. Yeo#

Eugene Yeo PhD MBA is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), a founding member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine and member of the UCSD Stem Cell Program and Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Yeo has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management.

Dr. Yeo’s research interest is in understanding and manipulating RNA processing in development and disease using induced pluripotent stem cell and murine models. His lab demonstrated in vivo RNA targeting with CRISPR/Cas proteins with proof of concept in repeat expansion disorders. His lab developed enhanced CLIP for the purposes of large-scale mapping of protein-RNA interactions. His lab is an active participant in RNA genomics technology and therapeutics development.

Dr. Yeo is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Cell Reports and Cell Research. Dr. Yeo is a recipient of Alfred P Sloan Fellowship in recognition of his work in computational molecular biology (2011) and the inaugural Early Career Award from the International RNA Society (2017). Dr. Yeo was a recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Graduate Scholarship (2000), National Research Foundation Visiting Investigatorship Award (2017), a Blavatnik National Finalist (2018 & 2019) and Xconomy Award Winner for ‘Big Idea’ (2019). Gene is a co-founder of several biotech companies including Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Enzerna and Proteona. Gene serves or had served on the scientific advisory boards of the Allen Institute of Immunology, Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Proteona, Aquinnah, LGC, Nugen and Ribometrix.

For more information please see this document

Read an interview with Professor Eugene Yeo, the inaugural recipient of the Academia Europaea Sydney Brenner Medal.