Shaw Prize honours EU-funded scientist for advancing cutting-edge 3D imaging technology
Molecular biologist and European Research Council grantee Wolfgang Baumeister was awarded the Shaw Prize at a press conference held in Hong Kong on 27 May 2025. Director Emeritus and scientific member of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany, Baumeister received this honour for his trailblazing work on the advancement of cryogenic-electron tomography (cryo-ET). The technology is enabling better insight into how viruses attack the human body and leading to new treatments. Baumeister’s research has been supported by two EU-funded projects. TOPAG, launched in 2013, focused on toxic protein aggregation in neurodegeneration. The second, still ongoing project, called SymPore(opens in new window), began in 2021 and is studying the structural elucidation of plasmodesmata – the microscopic channels that connect plant cells – at near-atomic resolution using cryo-ET.
Overcoming hurdles
Baumeister made groundbreaking advancements in cryo-ET, an imaging technique used to visualise biological samples such as proteins, macromolecules and cellular structures in 3D in their native setting within cells. The molecular biologist addressed the time-consuming processes and guesswork involved in macromolecule identification by developing a computational method called template matching. This method has allowed scientists to locate and identify the positions and orientations of macromolecular complexes in crowded cellular environments, in this way improving the accuracy and the automation of cryo-ET. To overcome the limitations imposed by the fact that cryo-ET could only be applied to very small, very thin specimens such as viruses, bacteria and yeast, Baumeister and his team perfected the use of focused ion beam (FIB) milling, a process used in manufacturing. In cryo-ET, FIB milling slices away biological material from the outsides of thick samples, making the remaining sections thin enough for analysis. This has enabled scientists to study the cells and tissues of higher organisms that were previously precluded from cryo-ET analysis. Baumeister’s achievements extend beyond cryo-ET method development. Together with his colleagues, he has analysed the 26S proteosome complex, which is needed to remove damaged or unnecessary proteins in cells. He has also shed light on how disrupted proteosome function contributes to human disease. Additionally, cryo-ET has greatly benefited virology, providing a better understanding of how viruses interact with host cell membranes. The Shaw Prize’s Life Science and Medicine Selection Committee encapsulates the scientist’s achievements in an article(opens in new window) posted on the foundation’s website: “Baumeister has developed and applied methods to reveal the inner workings of cells at an unprecedented, near-atomic level. The power of this technology is transforming our understanding of normal life processes and how they go awry in disease.” Baumeister was one of four winners announced at the press conference. Mathematician Kenji Fukaya from China’s Tsinghua University received the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences for his pioneering work on symplectic geometry. The Shaw Prize in Astronomy was shared by two astrophysicists – John Richard Bond (University of Toronto) and George Efstathiou (University of Cambridge) – for their groundbreaking research in cosmology. The three prizes each bear a monetary award of USD 1.2 million. The SymPore (Plasmodesmata, Symplasmic pores for plant cell-to-cell communication) project ends in 2027. TOPAG (Toxic protein aggregation in neurodegeneration) ended in 2019. For more information, please see: SymPore project web page(opens in new window) TOPAG project
Keywords
SymPore, TOPAG, Shaw Prize, Wolfgang Baumeister, cryo-ET, European Research Council, cryogenic-electron tomography, imaging, focused ion beam milling, virus, cell
