The Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) congratulates Elly Tanaka, who is scientific director at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2024. The biochemist receives the award for her work in the field of regeneration research, which focuses on a small but spectacular animal: the axolotl. These aquatic amphibians can completely regenerate lost body parts such as limbs or even parts of the spinal cord. Tanaka's research answers fundamental questions about the body's self-healing abilities and provides ground-breaking insight into modern biomedicine. In addition, Silvia Ramundo of the Gregor Mendel Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences receives the ASTRA Prize from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Furthermore, demographer Kateryna Golovina receives a Merit Award.
Specialist in regenerative biology
Elly Tanaka is now one of the leading researchers in the field of regenerative biology and her work has inspired colleagues around the world. The Austrian Science Fund’s jury honours her “groundbreaking contributions to understanding tissue regeneration.” Her research has “fundamentally changed” the field, and her findings are of “great importance for future applications in regenerative medicine.” Tanaka says: "This recognition acknowledges past efforts of many members of my lab, and energizes our future ambitions. The award comes at an exciting time for the field of regeneration research, where new discoveries are rapidly reshaping our understanding of tissue repair and plasticity. The Wittgenstein Award will allow me to invest in the next generation of scientists, to give young researchers in the lab the freedom and resources to explore how findings from the axolotl can be translated to mammalian systems.”
“The Wittgenstein Prize for Elly Tanaka is well deserved," says OeAW President Heinz Faßmann. "Tanaka is an excellent scientist and a pioneer in regenerative biology. Her research on axolotls is accessible to the public thanks to her clear communication and appealing research subject. The Austrian Academy of Sciences was able to recruit Tanaka last year as director of the OeAW’s Institute of Molecular Biology. I congratulate her warmly on this award and look forward to seeing where her findings will take us next.“
Ulrike Diebold, Vice President of the OeAW, adds: ”Elly Tanaka is one of the most innovative scientists of our time. She has made ground-breaking discoveries that have opened up new dimensions in her field of regenerative biology. I am delighted that we were able to attract Elly Tanaka to the OeAW last year as director of IMBA and congratulate her warmly on her well-deserved award."
From Harvard to Vienna
Born in the US, Elly Tanaka studied biochemistry at Harvard University and earned her PhD at the University of California in San Francisco. During her postdoctoral studies at University College London, she discovered her passion for regeneration research – a topic that has continued to shape her work until today. In 1999, she founded her own laboratory at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, later taking on a professorship and the directorship of the Center for Regenerative Therapies (CRTD). In 2016, she moved to the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and has been Scientific Director of IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2024. Tanaka has received numerous awards for her outstanding research, including an ERC Advanced and Synergy Grant, the Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, as well as the memberships of EMBO, Leopoldina, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the US National Academy of Sciences. The biochemist currently heads the FWF project “Regenerative Strategies for Heart Repair.” Most recently, in May 2025, she and her team published a scientific breakthrough in Nature relating to the position code for regenerating limbs in the genome.
IMBA, where Tanaka is Scientific Director, is the largest institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW). Thirteen research groups are deciphering a wide variety of molecular processes in cells—using basic research to advance the treatment of diseases. ASTRA Prize and Merit Award Members of the OeAW’s scientific community also celebrated successes at this year's ASTRA Prize and FWF Merit Award ceremonies: Silvia Ramundo of the Gregor Mendel Institute for Molecular Plant Biology of the OeAW receives an ASTRA Prize worth one million euros. She is researching how plants respond to molecular distress signals from damaged chloroplasts. The aim is to decipher the “calls for help” from these cellular powerhouses in order to make plants more resistant to environmental stress and prevent crop failures. Psychologist Kateryna Golovina is being honoured with a Merit Award worth 500,000 euros. She will continue her research at the Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, investigating why people in wealthy countries are postponing having children or deciding not to have children at all. Using international surveys and Finnish registry data, the researcher, who is currently working at the University of Helsinki, analyses psychosocial influences such as mental health, values, and fears about the future, thereby providing new insights into declining birth rates.