Otto Hahn medals for Tanvi Kulkarni & Mari Carmen Romero-Mulero
The Max Planck Society honors two young female scientists for outstanding research
- Two researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg are receiving the Max Planck Society's Otto Hahn Medal for their outstanding doctoral work.
- Mari Carmen Romero-Mulero identified vitamin A metabolites and choline as key regulators of blood stem cell health – pointing to possible approaches against ageing, leukaemia and the after-effects of a heart attack.
- Tanvi Kulkarni revealed how molecular complexes use non-coding RNAs to home in precisely on their target within the vast genome.
How cells control which of their genes are active, when and how strongly, is one of the fundamental questions in biology – and one of the central research areas at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. Two young researchers at the institute have each contributed to this field in very different ways through their doctoral projects. Both are now receiving the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society for their outstanding work.
Dr María del Carmen Romero Mulero is seeking to understand how the interplay between metabolism and epigenetic regulation keeps blood stem cells functional. Dr Tanvi Kulkarni is investigating how the molecular machines in the nucleus manage to pinpoint the exact location within the genome to control gene activity.
The Otto Hahn Medal is one of the most important awards for early-career researchers within the Max Planck Society. Endowed with 7,500 euros, it is presented each year to up to 30 scientists who have successfully completed their doctorate at one of the more than 80 Max Planck Institutes. The award aims to encourage exceptionally talented individuals to pursue a career in academia or research.
Mari Carmen Romero-Mulero: Mapping the metabolism of blood stem cells
Mari Carmen Romero-Mulero, from the laboratory of Nina Cabezas-Wallscheid, is being honoured for discovering new regulatory mechanisms that preserve the function of blood stem cells in ageing and leukaemia, and after a heart attack.
Blood stem cells, also known as haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), are a rare cell type found within the bone marrow that is responsible for producing all blood and immune cells. In her research project, Romero Mulero developed new, highly sensitive methods that enable the comprehensive profiling of even the rarest of cells, such as blood stem cells, in terms of their epigenetic regulation, gene activity, metabolism and lipid composition.
Using computational and machine-learning approaches, she then created a detailed molecular map of how blood stem cells are regulated in different situations. “This allowed us to identify vitamin A metabolites and choline as key regulators of blood stem cell function. It is striking that choline levels decline with age and in leukaemia. This suggests that such metabolic changes contribute to stem cell dysfunction,” says Romero-Mulero.
The clinical significance of these findings becomes clear when considering heart attacks. After a heart attack, the bone marrow ramps up a kind of emergency programme. This over-activates blood stem cells, which then produce increased numbers of inflammatory cells that further damage the heart tissue. “We found that a particular vitamin A metabolite can specifically restrain this response, reducing inflammation and preserving heart function in the long term. We are currently working on translating this approach into the clinic and have already taken the first steps towards clinical trials,” says Romero-Mulero.
Tanvi Kulkarni: The correct address in the genome
Dr Tanvi Kulkarni completed her PhD in the laboratory of Asifa Akhtar. She is being honoured for her research into how chromatin regulators use long non-coding RNAs to reliably locate their target sites within the genome.
Within the cell, genetic information is not present in a loose form but is organized into a highly structured complex known as chromatin. The degree of chromatin compaction determines whether the genes in a given region are accessible and can be read. The molecular complexes that regulate chromatin organization must therefore locate their targets with remarkable precision within the vast genome.
Using dosage compensation in the fruit fly Drosophila as a model system, Tanvi Kulkarni investigated how this targeting process works. Male flies possess only one X chromosome, whereas females have two. To ensure that genes on the single male X chromosome are expressed at appropriate levels, comparable to those of the two female X chromosomes, a specialized molecular complex reduces chromatin compaction along that chromosome, thereby doubling gene activity.
“The key question was: how does this molecular complex identify one specific chromosome among all the others, and how does it regulate gene expression on that chromosome?”, Kulkarni explains.
Through extensive laboratory work and single-molecule biophysics, Kulkarni was able to examine how the components of this regulatory complex recognize, assemble, and establish stable interactions on DNA. Her work revealed that achieving genomic targeting specificity depends on the coordinated action of RNA, DNA, and protein components, and not protein-DNA interactions alone. However, the significance of the results extends far beyond the fly. "Ultimately, our work has identified key principles that govern gene regulation – and has implications not only for dosage compensation, but also for processes that control cell identity, development and disease," says Kulkarni.
The award ceremony took place on 17 June 2026 during the 77th Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society in Frankfurt.
Gallery of the ceremony
© Bettina & David Ausserhofer / MPG
About Tanvi Kulkarni
Tanvi Kulkarni comes from Pune, India, and studied biotechnology at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology at Savitribai Phule Pune University. In 2019, she joined the International Max Planck Research School for Immunobiology, Epigenetics and Metabolism (IMPRS-IEM) of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and the University of Freiburg. In 2025, she completed her doctorate in the lab of Asifa Akhtar, where she continues to work as a postdoctoral researcher.
Abour Mari Carmen Romero-Mulero
Mari Carmen Romero-Mulero studied biochemistry at the University of Seville in Spain. For her bachelor's thesis, she carried out research at the Earlham Institute in the United Kingdom in the group of Dr Korcsmaros, working on autophagy. This was followed by a master's in bioinformatics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, accompanied by research stays at the IBiS in Seville and a thesis project in the group of Nina Cabezas-Wallscheid at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE) in Freiburg. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie network ARCH (Age-Related Changes in Hematopoiesis), she then completed her doctorate in the same laboratory as part of the MeInBio programme of the University of Freiburg. After completing her doctorate in 2025, she now conducts research in the group of Cabezas-Wallscheid at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
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