NICHD’s Zimmerberg Honored for Contributions to Membrane Research

Dr. Joshua Zimmerberg

Dr. Joshua Zimmerberg, chief of NICHD’s section on integrative biophysics, has been named the 2021 recipient of the Sir Bernard Katz Award for Excellence in Research on Membrane Fusion, Fission and Traffic.

Given by the Biophysical Society, the award is named for the 1970 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, who discovered that neurotransmitters are released from membrane-bound vesicles and travel across synapses to relay messages between neurons.

Zimmerberg was recognized for his contribution to the understanding of how cell membranes fuse together and separate in exocytosis, the process by which membrane-bound vesicles release from the cell, and endocytosis, the process by which membranes envelop materials to take them into the cell.

During his career, Zimmerberg’s discoveries have led to insights into how viruses enter cells, how the toxoplasma parasite invades cells, and how malaria parasites enter cells, commandeer resources, evade the immune system and progress through the various stages of their life cycles.