Amparo Acker-Palmer facts for kids

Amparo Acker-Palmer, born on September 10, 1968, is a Spanish scientist who works in Germany. She is a cell biologist and a neuroscientist. This means she studies tiny cells and how the brain and nervous system work. Her main research looks at how nerves and blood vessels grow in similar ways. She has also worked with her husband, Till Acker, who studies the brain, on ways to treat tumors. Amparo Acker-Palmer has won many awards for her important discoveries. One big award was the Paul Ehrlich & Ludwig Darmstaeder Prize for Young Researchers in 2010. In 2012, she became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, which is a very respected group of scientists.

Education and Career

Amparo Acker-Palmer grew up in Sueca, Valencia, Spain. She studied biology and biochemistry at the University of Valencia, finishing in 1991. After that, she earned her PhD in biology in 1996. A PhD is a high-level degree that shows you are an expert in your field.

After her PhD, she moved to Heidelberg, Germany. There, she did special research called a postdoctoral fellowship at a place called the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). In 2001, she moved to Martinsried and became a junior group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology. She worked there for six years.

In 2007, she became a professor at Goethe University. She worked in a special group called "Macromolecular Complexes." Later, in 2011, she became the head of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology at Goethe University. She also worked on a program called the Focus Program Translational Neurosciences (FTN).

In 2014, Amparo Acker-Palmer was chosen as a Max Planck Fellow. This allowed her to do research at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. Her work there focused on how nerves and blood vessels communicate with each other.

Research Discoveries

Amparo Acker-Palmer's research helps us understand how nerves and blood vessels grow and develop. She studies this at a very tiny level, looking at the molecules involved.

In 2010, she and her team published important findings in a famous science magazine called Nature. They discovered that certain molecules, like EphrinB2, are important for how blood vessels grow, both when a body is developing and when tumors are forming. This discovery helped her win the Paul Ehrlich & Ludwig Darmstaeder Prize for Young Researchers. It showed that nerves and blood vessels use similar ways to grow.

One type of molecule she studies is called Ephrin. Ephrin helps guide nerve cells, called axons, as they grow in the central nervous system. Her research specifically looks at how a part of Ephrin, called Ephrin-B2, helps blood vessels grow.

Sometimes in science, there can be questions about research. After her paper was published, some readers of Nature had questions about some of the pictures used in her study. To make things clear, Amparo Acker-Palmer and her team explained that some pictures were labeled incorrectly. However, they confirmed that these small mistakes did not change the main findings of their experiment. They even did more tests to be sure, and their results were still correct.

Honours and Awards

Amparo Acker-Palmer has received many honors and awards for her important scientific work:

• She received a special scholarship from the Spanish Government while she was studying for her PhD (1992–1996).
• She won an award for her outstanding PhD work from the University of Valencia (1997).
• She was chosen as an EU Fellow for a research program (1997–1999).
• She won €60,000 from the Paul Ehrlich & Ludwig Darmstaeder Prize for Young Researchers in 2010. This was for her discovery about how nerves and blood vessels develop in similar ways.
• She received the Gutenberg Research Fellowship Award (2012).
• She was chosen as a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (2014).
• She received a large award of €2.5 million from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2015.

See Also

In Spanish: Amparo Acker-Palmer para niños

• List of Spanish inventors and discoverers