In a collaborative project with international partners, Natalie Jäger discovered for the first time that mutations happen with particularly high frequency in one of the X chromosomes of female cancer patients, the chromosome responsible for determining sex. In many cases of cancer, this chromosome exhibited between two to four times as many mutations as other chromosomes. Every cell in a female has two copies of the X chromosome; interestingly, the rate was not the same in the two copies. From embryonic development onwards, one of the copies is inactivated in each cell. The higher mutation rate exclusively affects the inactive copy.
The findings, published in the journal “Cell", should help scientists understand how mutations accumulate in damaged cells and eventually lead to the development of cancer.
Natalie Jäger, who pursued research for her PhD thesis at the DKFZ in the Division of Theoretical Bioinformatics headed by Roland Eils, is being distinguished for her extraordinary achievements with the Helmholtz PhD Award in health research. The Helmholtz Association awards this prize with the aim of supporting talented young researchers early on in order, both to recognize their prior achievements and to offer an incentive for them to follow a career in research. Since February, Dr. Jäger has been carrying out research as a post-doc at Stanford University, U.S.A.
The Helmholtz Association annually awards €5000 prizes in each of its six research areas. Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka and Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association, presented the awards at the Helmholtz Annual Conference on September 18, 2014.