Stephan Reitinger was named the winner at the 7th International Conference on Proteoglycans held in October in Sydney, Australia, and attended by Journal of Biological Chemistry Associate Editor Vincent Hascall.

On top while Down Under  

Stephan Reitinger, a researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, was named a Tabor award winner for his structural studies that identified a hyaluronan unbinding domain that governs the enzymatic activity of hyaluronidases.

Reitinger, who collaborated with researchers from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University College Dublin, Ireland, is interested in how the activation of hyaluronidases is controlled by a bulky surface loop near the active site. His hyaluronan metabolism work is supported by a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant from the European Commission.

Reitinger completed both his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Salzburg, Austria, and a postdoctoral stint at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.