Ivan Đikić received an award of 2.5 million euros

Croatian scientist Ivan Đikić, a professor at Goethe University and director of the Buchmann Institute in Frankfurt, is the recipient of the most prestigious German scientific award ‘Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’ for 2013 for his work in discovering the complex functions of the ubiquitin protein, announced yesterday by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which awards this largest monetary scientific prize in the world amounting to 2.5 million euros.

Ubiquitin is a small protein that is present in large quantities in all cells and has become known as the “kiss of death” because its function is to tag proteins that need to be degraded and removed for cells to remain healthy. For this discovery, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2004, the Buchmann Institute in Frankfurt announced today.

It is noted that ubiquitin is known to regulate other more complex processes in the cell due to its ability to modify many cellular proteins, and Ivan Đikić has proven that ubiquitin modifications act as codes that are specifically recognized in cells. By deciphering the ubiquitin code, Đikić fundamentally changed the understanding of the role of ubiquitin in healthy cells, as well as explained its role in the development of diseases such as inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, immune system diseases, and tumors. It is emphasized that due to these achievements, Ivan Đikić also received the ‘Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’ award.

Upon learning that he became a laureate of the mentioned award, Ivan Đikić stated that he is honored and touched by the news he received today and is happy to have been selected for the most prestigious scientific award in Germany. He said he is particularly grateful to all his students, postdoctoral researchers, and colleagues with whom he shares ‘the passion and excitement of scientific discoveries’ every day.
President of Goethe University, Professor Werner Müller-Esterl, congratulated his colleague, stating that for him ‘Ivan Đikić is the ideal scientist who approaches science and teaching students with enthusiasm and inexhaustible energy, and I particularly appreciate his creativity, conceptual thinking, and original vision in leading the institute and projects in science.’