Otto Hahn Medals for Joery den Hoed and Laura Giglio

Joery den Hoed was awarded the medal for ‘cutting-edge research deciphering distinct molecular mechanisms of rare DNA variants that disrupt human brain development and speech. His work on single-gene syndromes integrates clinical and behavioural findings, with thorough characterization of the impacts of genetic variants using sophisticated molecular assays and human cellular models, extending to gene-edited brain organoids and single-cell transcriptomics’.

Laura Giglio received the prize for ‘her contribution to our understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of the uniquely human capacity to speak a language. She used fMRI to investigate in which ways the brain supports language production and comprehension differently.’ Giglio is the first researcher who studied the production of language in a spontaneous setting, unconstrained by task requirements.

Photo by Lucía de Hoyos