DGHM Main Prize for Cynthia Sharma

09/22/2023

The German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) has awarded this year's main prize to infection biologist Cynthia Sharma. Sharma is a full professor at the University of Würzburg.

This year's DGHM main prize winner Cynthia Sharma at the award ceremony with DGHM President Prof. Jan Buer (r) and Prof. Klaus Pfeffer, Chairman of the DGHM Foundation. (Image: Conventus/K.Aldenhoff)

The DGHM's main prize annually honours active scientists with excellent and long-standing research activities in the field of hygiene and microbiology. This year’s award goes to Prof. Cynthia Sharma, who has been leading the Chair of Molecular Infection Biology II at the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) at the University of Würzburg (JMU) since 2017. Since 2018, she is also spokesperson of the Research Centre for Infectious Diseases (ZINF) at JMU. The 2023 DGHM Main Prize is endowed with 7,000 euros and was presented at the 75th Annual Conference of the DGHM in Lübeck on September 18th.

Research contributes to a better understanding of bacterial pathogens

At JMU, Sharma explores how pathogenic bacteria adapt to changing environmental conditions, protect themselves against the human immune system and how they specifically activate or deactivate their genes to do so. In particular, she investigates the underlying molecular mechanisms of RNA-based gene regulation by so-called small, regulatory RNA molecules and associated protein factors. In addition, her research group has been developing and employing diverse high-throughput sequencing methods to find out which parts of the DNA are active in bacterial cells and how they can be converted into proteins, as well as which RNA molecules interact with proteins in the cell. Another focus of her research is to study the biology and function of bacterial RNA-based CRISPR-Cas immune systems as well as small proteins.

"This work is also receiving far reaching recognition," the laudation reads. "Professor Sharma's research is regularly published in renowned journals." Her research also has a high level of interdisciplinarity: "Cynthia Sharma's scientific background extends far beyond the field of microbiology and also includes RNA biology, infection biology, molecular biology, biochemistry and bioinformatics."

In addition to her research activities, Prof Sharma has, for example, been involved as a member of the DGHM since 2010 and was a board member in the DGHM specialist group "Gastrointestinal Infections" from 2015 to 2021. Furthermore, together with Prof. Oliver Kurzai from JMU, the conference president of the DGHM, she is organising the 7th joint DGHM/VAMM annual conference in Würzburg in 2024 as conference president of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM).

About the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology

The Institute of Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg with strong links to the Faculty of Biology. It focuses on the molecular basis of infections caused by bacteria or their phages, parasites and fungi. A central topic is RNA biology, in particular the function of non-coding RNA molecules in host-pathogen interactions.

Short vita of the award winner

Cynthia Sharma studied biology at the University of Düsseldorf from 1998 to 2004, with majors in biophysics, bioinformatics and computer science. In 2009, she completed her doctorate in RNA biology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin and at Bielefeld University. After a short period as a postdoctoral researcher at the MPI in Berlin and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, she was appointed as a young investigator research group leader at the Research Center for Infectious Diseases (ZINF) in Würzburg in 2010. Since 2017, she has headed the newly established Chair of Molecular Infection Biology II at JMU Würzburg and has been spokesperson of the ZINF since 2018.

Sharma’s research has been recognized by several awards, including the Pettenkofer Prize 2022, the DFG Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Prize in 2015, the Robert Koch Postdoctoral Award in 2011 and the DGHM Young Investigator Award in 2013. In 2022, she received a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant to study RNA binding proteins in bacteria.