Award for Master's graduate Jonas Toews

GBM Preisträger Jonas Alexander Toewes mit Professor Jörn Oliver Sass_Foto H-BRS_b

Outstanding work: Jonas Alexander Toews, a Master's graduate from the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences at H-BRS, has been awarded the Master's Prize of the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. With this prize, the society honours the exceptional quality of Toews' Master's thesis in the Biomedical Sciences degree programme. Jörn Oliver Sass, Professor of Bioanalytics and Biochemistry, presented the award at a small ceremony in lecture theatre 3 in Rheinbach.

The Frankfurt-based Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology awards an annual prize to graduates of biochemistry or related molecular biology and molecular medicine degree programmes at each location. The prize includes a book voucher and one year's free membership of the society. Included is a free subscription to the journal BIOspektrum.

Award winner Jonas Alexander Toews is delighted that his research has been recognised:

"In my master's thesis, I established an experimental platform with which individual ion channels can be investigated under precisely defined conditions in artificial lipid membranes. This makes it possible to visualise even the smallest functional changes that often remain hidden in complex biological systems. The system I have established enables a better understanding of fundamental biological mechanisms and can thus contribute to finding new strategies and approaches for the development of active substances." The Master's graduate's next goal is now a doctorate, which he would like to start this year.

Award winner Jonas Alexander Toews with Professor Jörn Oliver Sass at the award ceremony. Photo: H-BRS

In his letter of recommendation, Professor Althaus emphasised that Toews, as a member of his working group and under the supervision of Dr Oliver Rauh, the second supervisor of the Master's thesis, had established a method for the cell-free measurement of ion channels in artificial lipid membranes that had not previously existed in the laboratory: "The technique is very demanding, both technically and analytically, and requires great skill in the experimental implementation." Althaus also praises the Master's student's great commitment to the department, for example in lectures and as a substitute for lectures. According to Professor Althaus, Jonas Alexander Toews is "one of the best students I have been able to supervise on the Biomedical Sciences programme."

The Faculty of Applied Sciences at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences has significantly expanded its research in the field of biomedicine in the recent past. The focal points include research into inborn errors of metabolism, leukaemia and genetic disorders of ion channels. These can be linked to symptoms or diseases such as high blood pressure, cystic fibrosis and cardiac arrhythmia.

The German Research Foundation is funding the joint project "CytoTransport" at H-BRS and thus the establishment of a centre for biomedical research over a period of five years with a total of around six million euros. The project is part of the "Forschungsimpulse" programme for universities of applied sciences. At the end of 2023, H-BRS was selected as one of ten HAWs nationwide for the programme.

GBM Preisträger Joans Alexander Toewes_Foto H-BRS_b

In his Master's thesis, Jonas Alexander Toews focussed on ion channels, which play a central role in numerous physiological processes and many diseases. Photo: H-BRS