Colorado State researcher, a world renowned DNA expert, to receive hometown honors in Austria
Karolin Luger, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at CSU, is being honored in her hometown of Vorarlberg, Austria.
Karolin Luger, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Colorado State University, is being honored in her hometown of Vorarlberg, Austria, for her world-renowned work on the structure and function of chromatin.
The Governor of Vorarlberg will present Luger on April 16 the Vorarlberg State Science Prize.
Stucture and function of chromatin
Chromatin is the complex of DNA and protein found inside the nuclei of eukaryotic cells. DNA, the basic genetic code for life, has billions of base pairs that are packed together with proteins into the complex called chromatin. The structure of chromatin controls whether the cell can transcribe genes and replicate and repair DNA.
In 1997, Luger and her collogues used X-ray crystallography to uncover the structure of a core chromatin particle in extraordinary detail. This achievement demonstrated how the structure of chromatin guides its role in DNA transcription, replication and repair, and laid the foundation for further studies in the chromatin field.
Luger came to CSU in 1999
Luger joined Colorado State in 1999. In her first year, she was awarded five grants totaling nearly $1.5 million for her research, including a major, five-year National Institutes of Health grant and the prestigious Searle Scholar Award -- Luger is the only Colorado State professor to have ever won this award.
Some of Luger's other accolades include being selected as one of Colorado State University's Monfort Professors and in 2005 being named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, which chose Luger as one of 43 scientists honored as the nation's most promising biomedical scientists.
Productive laboratory research group and collaborations
Luger has established a productive laboratory research group at Colorado State, resulting in 24 peer-reviewed manuscripts since 1999. Luger has initiated highly productive collaborations with several laboratories within the university and throughout the world. As a result, Luger was recently one of four lead investigators of a successful W. M. Keck Foundation proposal that resulted in a $1.2 million award for research in Chromatin Structure and Function. This is only the second Keck Foundation award ever to be won by a Colorado State research group.
Luger earned a doctorate in biochemistry and biophysics with honors from the University of Basel in Switzerland. She spent several years at the well regarded Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich before joining Colorado State. She is the author of more than 31 refereed articles in scientific journals.
Contact: Nikolaus Olsen
Email: Nik.Olsen@colostate.edu
Phone Number: (970) 491-7766
