Ivana Nikić-Spiegel is group leader at the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience of the University of Tübingen. In her research, she combines two state-of-the-art technologies in a promising way. Already in her doctoral work at the University of Munich (LMU), the molecular biologist was able to describe a new form of neuronal damage (the so-called focal axonal degeneration), which is caused by immune cell attacks. But what happens at the molecular level during this neuronal damage? As a post-doc at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Ivana Nikić-Spiegel developed a new method for protein labeling. Combining this with the use of super-resolution microscopy, she is now able to image the function of proteins at nanometer resolution and to use this technique for her investigations into neuroinflammation.

Dr. Nikić-Spiegel was nominated for the Friedmund Neumann Prize 2017 by Dr. Edward Lemke, group leader at the EMBL. “Ivana Nikić-Spiegel’s research helps us understand the pathology of multiple sclerosis, from the molecular all the way to the physiological and medically relevant levels. At the same time, she has the unique ability to develop and apply new and groundbreaking tools of chemical biology. This makes her research truly cutting-edge and internationally outstanding,” says Lemke.