Cancer research building named after Angelika Amon
Boehringer Ingelheim RCV opened its new cancer research building yesterday. The modern facility for 150 scientists was named after the late Angelika Amon, alumna and lifelong friend of the IMP.
Visible from afar, the Angelika Amon Building towers over Boehringer Ingelheim’s Regional Center Vienna campus. The state-of-the-art building will provide facilities of the highest standard to 150 cancer researchers. Boehringer Ingelheim invested 60 million Euro in the 11,000 square metre construction.
Yesterday, the new building was officially opened with participation of Angelika Amon’s close family. Amon, who made crucial contributions to understanding the regulation of chromosome segregation in health and disease, was a native of Vienna and had lifelong ties to the city and the IMP.
Born in Vienna in 1967, Angelika Amon joined Kim Nasmyth’s lab at the IMP in the winter of 1987/88 as one of the IMP’s first graduate students. For her PhD, she studied cell division in baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Much later, she would comment that the IMP was where she learned “how to do science the English way: relentless and truthfully”.
Following her graduation in 1993, Amon moved to the United States and joined the lab of Ruth Lehmann at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts for her postdoctoral research. Ruth Lehmann became a vital role model for Amon, and Massachusetts the new centre of Amon’s academic career and life. As a Whitehead Fellow, Amon set up her own lab in 1996. Three years later, she joined the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Amon spent the rest of her career at the MIT, where she did her most influential research on the effects of abnormal chromosome numbers with far-reaching implications for cancer research. Beyond her prolific research, Amon was highly valued as a colleague, supervisor, and supporter of marginalised groups. Her contributions to science were met with a long list of honours, most importantly the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, which she received in 2019.
Amon maintained her connections to the IMP through personal ties and professional collaborations throughout her career. From 2009 until 2019, she served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the IMP. Tragically, Angelika Amon passed away from cancer in 2020.
Angelika Amon’s scientific and personal legacy, her links to Vienna, and her own battle with cancer will inspire the mission of 150 researchers now working in the new building.
“Angelika is greatly missed in academia and beyond,” said IMP Scientific Director Jan-Michael Peters after the opening ceremony. “I am happy to see that her legacy is taken up by Boehringer Ingelheim and think that name, location, and building are a fantastic match. There are many ways in which Angelika was an outstanding role model, and I am sure these will guide the colleagues who are now working on this site named in her honour.”
The Boehringer Ingelheim Regional Centre Vienna operates in over 30 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Israel. All clinical research in the region is coordinated from Vienna, which is also the main centre for cancer research and the location for biopharmaceutical research, development, and production within the Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies. Boehringer Ingelheim is the shareholder and main sponsor of the IMP. In addition to its investments in basic research at the IMP, Boehringer Ingelheim invests approximately 300 million Euro per year in applied research and development.
Further Reading
Boehringer Ingelheim RCV
https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/at/en
Obituary Angelika Amon
https://www.imp.ac.at/news/article/angelika-amon-1967-to-2020
Ripples of Knowledge - Reflections on Angelika Amon’s life and legacy by Kim Nasmyth
https://www.imp.ac.at/career/beyond/in-memoriam-angelika-amon