30 September 2025 Max Madern receives CS&D Best Publication Award Back to news This year’s CS&D Best Publication Award has been awarded to Max Madern for his research on ribosomes and their surprising ability to help each other in difficult situations. His paper, featured in this news item, introduces a novel method to study ribosomes, large molecular machines that produce proteins in our cells, while they perform this essential task. By trapping ribosomes on circular RNA, Max and his colleagues were able to observe them in action for hours. Their observations revealed that when ribosomes encounter challenging sequences, they do not always work alone: a second ribosome that catches up can help the first one continue translating. This discovery sheds new light on the cooperative behavior of ribosomes under stress. The video shows different circular RNA translation sites. The spots increase in intensity over time, indicative of active translation by ribosomes as the growing protein chains they are synthesizing become longer. When a drug called puromycin is added, ribosomes dissociate from the circular RNA. This allows the researchers to determine how many ribosomes were translating on each individual circular RNA. In the four example movies (from left to right), 1, 2, 3, or 4 ribosomes have been translating. Dr. Eric Kalkhoven, coordinator of the CS&D PhD programme, hands over the certificate to Max Madern As part of the award, Max had the honor of presenting his work during the CS&D graduate school master class event last Friday. Looking ahead, Max is currently writing up new results from experiments in which he applied the same trick with circular RNA to study the ribosome’s “evil twin brother”: the proteasome, a cellular machine that degrades proteins. Because ribosomes trapped on circular RNA produce unusually large proteins, this ‘byproduct’ makes it possible to observe how proteasomes break them down over time. Gaining insight into how these essential protein complexes function marks an important step toward understanding these fundamental processes of life.
