18 February 2020 – The FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award recognizes outstanding contributions of female researchers in the life sciences. The recipients are also inspiring role models for future generations of scientists.
Elly Tanaka receives the award for her pioneering work developing a molecular understanding of limb and spinal cord regeneration. She developed new methods to study the phenomenon, which had previously been considered too complex to understand at a cellular level. Through her work inside and outside the lab, Tanaka has galvanized regeneration research worldwide.
“It is a great honour to receive this recognition,” says Tanaka of receiving the award. “Working on this important problem and watching the regeneration field grow in size and activity during my career so far has been very exciting. I am proud to have played a part in its development and I look forward to seeing where it goes next.”
EMBO Member Ruth Lehmann of New York University, USA, says: “Throughout her career, Elly Tanaka has played an active role in organizing the regeneration community in Europe and internationally, and is in part responsible for a worldwide reawakening of interest in the problem of regeneration. In 2002 she co-founded with Brigitte Galliot the EMBO series ‘The Molecular and Cellular Basis of Regeneration and Tissue Repair’, which is still running today under the stewardship of young people in the field, many of whom were mentored and hosted for research visits in Elly’s laboratory.”
In addition to organizing meetings and mentoring junior scientists, Tanaka has served on several advisory boards, including the Board of Directors of the International Stem Cell Society. Alongside these activities, she has continued to perform research of the highest quality.
EMBO Member Marc W. Kirschner of Harvard University, USA, who was Tanaka’s research supervisor during her PhD, says: “Elly made an important decision that she would study limb, tail and spinal cord regeneration. Her findings in the axolotl system are profound and tell us a lot about differentiation and dedifferentiation.” Of her research field, he says: “the goal of regeneration itself is so medically important and the relationship of regeneration to the normal problems of differentiation are so deep and rewarding that her work will surely inspire scientists for many years. In this larger field no one I know casts a larger shadow than Elly.”
Tanaka will be presented with the FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award of 10,000 euros and a bronze statuette on 6 July 2020 at the FEBS Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she will give a plenary lecture.
