The Raymond and Berly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics at Tel Aviv University was awarded to three scientists from the USA

The three deal with the structure and self-organization of proteins and nucleic acids * The ceremony took place on Monday this week

The Raymond and Berly Sackler International Biophysics Prize was awarded this week at Tel Aviv University to three leading scientists in the field of the structure and self-assembly of proteins and nucleic acids.

In 2008, the award deals with the structure and self-organization of proteins and nucleic acids and will amount to a total of 75,000 dollars.

The recipients of the award for 2008 are Professor David Baker from the University of Washington, (Seattle) who uses computational methods of bioinformatics to predict the structure of proteins; Professor Martin Grubela from the University of Illinois, (Urbana, Illinois) who studies protein folding and Professor Jonathan Weissman from the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the organization and structure of prions and amyloids in the brain.

The total prize will be divided equally between the three scientists and each will win 25,000 dollars.

The International Prize in Biophysics is awarded annually thanks to the generosity of Dr. Raymond Sackler and Mrs. Beverly Sackler. The purpose of the award is to encourage dedication to science, originality and exceptional excellence of young scientists from all over the world.

The process of selecting candidates is conducted at Tel Aviv University through a committee whose members are the award coordinators from Tel Aviv University, Professor David Andelman and Professor Michael Kozlov, as well as a number of world-renowned scientists in the field.

Details about the award and the winners for 2008 can be found on the university's website.