2020 Award Winner: Prof. Randall Platt
Appointment at time of winning the Award:
Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Randall Platt, born 1987, receives the € 20,000 prize for his pioneering work developing a method to record timelines of gene expression events using a CRISPR-Cas system.
The Jury: “This system works by small pieces of RNA being inserted into the genome of a non-pathogenic bacterium in response to environmental changes. This system enables progress toward future development of a gut microbiome (normal intestinal flora) that can report experiences of the host organism and shows potential for use as a diagnostic tool to predict individualized precision interventions for both humans and other animals.”
Randall Platt: “Receiving the Eppendorf Award is a tremendous honor, one in which I share with my laboratory, collaborators, and family. My research focuses on developing innovative technologies that empower scientists to ask fundamental questions and develop therapeutics and diagnostics. The Award specifically recognizes my laboratory’s work on living diagnostics - engineered bacteria that act as biographers of their environment by continuously recording gene expression information - which may in the future provide a non-invasive tool to diagnose and individualize therapies for patients around the world.”
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Award ceremony for Randall Platt, planned for June 2020 at the EMBL ATC in Heidelberg, initially postponed by one year, was ultimately cancelled.
Instead, there will be a live stream of the double award ceremony for Randall Platt and the 2021 winner on June 24, 2021. More information to follow in due time.
Downloads
Podcast
In this Nature podcast, Prof. Randall Platt, 2020 winner of the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators, speaks to science writer Geoff Marsh about his pioneering work on creating a „molecular recorder“.