
ODBI faculty member Martin Jonikas has won the 2023 Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award. Jonikas makes it consecutive Princeton winners, as director Cliff Brangwynne won last year.
Jonikas, associate professor of molecular biology and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has won the seventh Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award for his work in the structure, biogenesis, and engineering of the pyrenoid, the eukaryotic carbon dioxide-concentrating organelle. He will give a lecture in Japan at the Research Center for Materials Science at the University of Nagoya on December 13.
Named after the discoverers of the Okazaki fragment, the award is offered each year to "an early career scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of biology through innovative and original approaches or transformative technologies. The award recognizes a young scientist’s extraordinary efforts and accomplishments and encourages his or her future success." The Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award is administered by Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) at the University of Nagoya.
Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute director Cliff Brangwynne won the Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award for his work on "Liquid Phase Condensation in Cell Physiology & Disease" in 2022.