Doctoral Student Award
To motivate doctoral students and to honour extraordinary achievements, the Graduate School awards a Doctoral Student Award to outstanding students every year on our Graduation Day. Awards are conferred for excellent research as documented in publications or as talks given at international scientific conferences, and for the development and implementation of innovative methods. Interdisciplinary projects are given preferential consideration.
From 2024 onward the Wilfried and Jutta Trumpp foundation generously supports the doctoral prize for both IGradU (PhD-programme) and doctoral students (experimental medicine). The prize amounts to 5,000 euros (for the phd -programme) which is awarded during the Fall Meetings and to 3,000 (for the doctoral students of the programme “experimental medicine”), awarded during the Spring Meetings.
These PhD students received the Doctoral Student Award in recent years:
| Name | Research Topic | Institute | Year |
| Pastorio, Chiara | Functional impact of Spike mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants of concern | Institute of Molecular Virology | 2025 |
| Seeling, Carolin | Programme: “Experimental Medicine” Molecular characterization of primary and recurrent chordomas and investigations into protein interactions of the chordoma key driver Brachyury | Clinic for Internal Medicine III | 2025 |
| Mannes, Marco | Lessons from and for complement therapeutics: Novel mechanistic insights into terminal pathway activation and its linkage to thrombosis | Institute of Clinical and Experimental Trauma Immunology | 2024 |
| Koumoundourou, Efstathia Artemis | The transcription factor Bcl11b regulates the function of adult hippocampal mossy fiber synapses through a C1ql2/Nrxn3 pathway | Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy | 2024 |
| Wettstein, Lukas | Discovery and characterization of protease inhibitors that block SARS-CoV-2 infection | Molecular Virology | 2023 |
| Krüger, Jana | Modelling gastrointestinal development and disease with stem cell-derived organoids | Institute of Molecular Oncology and Stem Cell Biology | 2023 |
| Kuhn, Melanie | Programme: “Experimental Medicine” Einfluss von Katecholaminen aus CD11b+ myeloiden Zellen auf stressinduzierte Effekte während der Frakturheilung | Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics Trauma Research Center Ulm | 2023 |
| Groß, Rüdiger | Extracellular vesicles in human body fluids as innate antiviral factors | Clinic of Molecular Virology | 2022 |
| Hug, Stefan | Programme: “Experimental Medicine”: Activation of Neutrophil Granulocytes by Platelet-Activating Factor Is Impaired During Experimental Sepsis | Institute of Clinical and Experimental Trauma Immunology | 2022 |
| Bernhard, Stefan | Programme: “Experimental Medicine”: Interleukin 8 induziert eine Zellschwellung, intrazelluläre Alkalinisierung und Stoffwechselstimulation in neutrophilen Granulozyten | Institute of Clinical and Experimental Trauma Immunology | 2022 |
| Arnold, Frank | Molecular characterization of putative targets in pancreatic tissue regeneration and cancer homeostasis | Clinic for Internal Medicine I | 2021 |
| Harms, Miria | Endogenous CXCR4 Antagonists: Role in HIV-1 Transmission and Therapy of CXCR4-linked diseases | Institute of Molecular Virology | 2021 |
| Gump, Anja | Biological consequences of childhood maltreatment in postpartum women and their newborns | Department of Clinical and Biological Psychology | 2020 |
| Hopfensperger, Kristina | Convergent evolution of HIV-1- and HIV-2-mediated HLA-C downmodulation | Institute of Molecular Virology | 2020 |
| Braun, Elisabeth | Guanylate-binding proteins 2 and 5 exert broad antiviral activity by inhibiting furin-mediated processing of viral envelope proteins | Institute of Molecular Virology | 2019 |
| Hipp, Lisa | Single-molecule imaging of the serum response factor reveals changes in chromatin-binding dynamics upon cell stimulation | Institute of Physiological Chemistry | 2019 |
| Böck- Maier, Christina | Psychoneuroimmunological alterations associated with psychological stress across the lifespan llifespan | Department of Clinical and Biological Psychology | 2018 |
| Funcke, Jan-Bernd | Diagnosis and characterization of leptin mutations causing severe early-onset obesity | Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine | 2018 |
| Grozdanov, Veselin | Mechanisms of innate immunity and alpha-synuclein aggregation in Parkinson's disease | Department of Neurology | 2017 |
| Müller, Janis | The versatile role of semen and seminal amyloid in virus infection | Institute of Molecular Virology | 2017 |
| Hotter, Dominik | Modulation of viral gene expression and cellular immune response by primate lentiviral proteins Vpu, Vpr and Nef | Institute of Molecular Virology | 2017 |
| Feiler, Marisa | Development and application of a cell-based oligomerization assay to characterize TDP-43 aggregation, transmission and prion-like seeding in the context of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | Department of Neurology | 2016 |
| Hampp, Stefanie | Regulatory Role of p53 in the Reactivation of Stalled Replication Forks | Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics | 2016 |
| Anastasidou,Sofia | The Role of Serum Response factor mediated gene regulation in a mouse model of Multiple Sclerosis | Physiological Chemistry | 2015 |
| Fischer, Simon | Next-Generation Cell Engineering of Biopharmaceutical Production Cells using microRNAs | Institute of Pharmaceuetical Biotechnology, Biberach | 2015 |
| Palesch, David | Generation and characterization of AAV vectors for combination immunotherapy against HIV-1 | Molecular Virology | 2014 |
| Fan, Chunxiang | Transient compartment-like syndrome and normokalemic periodic paralysis due to a Cav 1.1 mutation | Neurophysiology | 2014 |
| Leibinger, Marco | Molecular mechanisms mediating neuroprotection and axon regeneration in mature retinal ganglion cells | Neurology | 2013 |
| Hartmann, Daniel | Telomerase gene mutations are associated with cirrhosis formation | Molecular Medicine | 2013 |
| Schmeißer, Michael | Molecular mechanisms of developing neuron - principles of maturation, synaptogenesis and plasticity | Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology | 2012 |
| Kron, Matthias | Adenovirus vaccine vectors - Influence of vector tropism and vector-directed immunity on adaptive immune responses to transgenic antigens | Department of Gene Therapy | 2012 |
| Bugner, Verena | Characterization of potential downstream targets of noncanonical Wnt signaling during Xenopus neural development | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | 2011 |
| Lück, Sonja | Functional characterization of CBF leukemia subgroup | Department of Internal Medicine III | 2011 |
| Lunov, Oleg | Modulation of immune cell signalling and function by functionalized particles | Pharmacology of Natural Products and Clinical Pharmacology | 2011 (for 2010) |
| Müller, Adrienne | Molecular mechanisms underlying the switch of mature retinal ganglion cells to a regenerative state after inflammatory stimulation | Neurology | 2009 |
| Chevillotte, Meike | Novel approaches for optimisation of human cytomegalovirus antiviral therapy based on viral resistance profiles | Virology | 2009 |
| Sander, Sandrine | Deregulated expression of microRNAs - a critical pathogenic mechanism in MYC-induced lymphoma | Physiological Chemistry | 2008 |
| Lebedev, Anton | Functional studies of Cockayne syndrome protein B in RNA polymerase I transcription | Dermatology | 2008 |
