Bavarian Culture Prize for chemist Carolin Scheitl

The molecule RNA, short for ribonucleic acid, is probably familiar to most people since it was used as a vaccine against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. RNA is still the subject of intense research. This is because it plays a role in the development of diseases such as cancer and may hold the key to improved therapies.

Dr Carolin Scheitl, a chemist at the Julius Maximilian University (JMU) in Würzburg, Germany, also studied RNA in her doctoral thesis. Her research question: How can small chemical building blocks, so-called methyl groups, be attached to RNA in order to influence its structure and function?

She developed MTR1, the first RNA enzyme that transfers methyl groups to a precisely defined position in a target RNA. This method opens up new ways of understanding the biological significance of methyl group transfer, which occurs frequently in the organism.

Prize of the Bayernwerk and the Ministry of Science

Carolin Scheitl has now been honoured for her dissertation: On 14. On 14 November in Munich, she received one of the Bavarian Cultural Awards in the field of science. The prize went to 32 other graduates of Bavarian universities. It is awarded by Bayernwerk AG in partnership with the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences and the Arts.

The prizes in the science category are endowed with 3,000 euros each. The prizewinners also receive a bronze statue, the "Gedankenblitz", designed by the Schwandorf sculptor Peter Mayer.

Continuing in RNA research as a postdoc

Carolin Scheitl, born in 1993, comes from Würzburg and studied chemistry and biology at the JMU. She completed her PhD in 2023. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Claudia Höbartner's team: She continues to investigate the potential of RNA and DNA as enzymes.

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Steckbrief Dr. Carolin Scheitl
(only in German available)