Highly Endowed Grant from European Research Council for Heidelberg Biologist

Heidelberg biologist Dr. Sylvia Erhardt is receiving a highly endowed grant from the European Research Council (ERC), an ERC Consolidator Grant for excellent young researchers. In the five-year project, entitled "The role of RNA in centromere biology and genome integrity", Dr. Erhardt will explore centromeres - structures which are essential for cell division. ERC funding in the amount of 1.9 million euros is being provided. Dr. Erhardt leads a junior research group at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) as part of the university's CellNetworks Cluster of Excellence. The project is scheduled to start in April 2016. Dr. Erhardt's research focuses on how chromosomes are correctly split during cell division so that the genomic integrity of the daughter cells is retained. A seemingly small but complex chromosomal constriction, the centromere plays an important role in this process and forms the structural and functional basis for chromosome division.