The College of Biological Sciences would like to congratulate Jodi Nunnari, professor of molecular and cellular biology and chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology for receiving the Feodor Lynen Medal from the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

In addition to the prestigious award, Nunnari was selected to present the Feodor Lynen Lecture during the “Cell Organelles – Origin, Dynamics, Communication” Colloquium in Mosbach, Germany on March 30. Nunnari’s presentation was entitled “The Behavior of Mitochondria.”­

“The Feodor Lynen Lecture and Medal is a wonderful recognition of Professor Nunnari’s outstanding research on mitochondria,” said Mark Winey, dean of the College of Biological Sciences. “She joins a select and stellar group of biologists who have been recognized with this award.”

Her research addresses the physiological functions and mechanisms of mitochondrial division and fusion, which are important determinants of overall mitochondrial shape and distribution.

Nunnari was selected “for her ground-breaking contributions to our understanding of mitochondrial behavior in intact cells, including how the structure of mitochondria is established and maintained, and how the mitochondrial genome is properly inherited,” according to a statement from the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The Lynen Lecture and Medal is named after the famous German biochemist Feodor Lynen, a post-World War II researcher who studied the chemical details of metabolic processes in living cells.