Prof. Michel Goedert, member of the Board of Governors of the University of Luxembourg, has been awarded the inaugural Rainwater Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Research.
The award recognises his achievement in establishing that the abnormal assembly of the “tau protein” is central to a large number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease. The Rainwater Charitable Foundation is one of the largest independent funders of neurodegenerative disease research.
Millions of people suffer from neurodegenerative diseases worldwide. The Rainwater Prize Programme encourages and rewards scientific progress toward new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases related to the accumulation of tau protein in the brain. Prof. Goedert’s work was instrumental in the discovery of the importance of the tau protein for Alzheimer’s disease. The prize money of 250,000 USD will support him and his team in their ongoing research on the protein’s mechanisms.
Prof. Goedert has been a member of the University of Luxembourg’s Board of Governors since the University’s founding in 2003. He is programme leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and has previously been awarded with the Brain Prize and the Royal Medal.