Awards and Grants

Professor Lars Maegdefessel (University Hospital rechts der Isar) receives an ERC Consolidator Grant to target long non-coding RNAs for novel treatment strategies in vascular diseases. The funding goes to excellent scientists to consolidate an independent research team.

Professor Nina Henriette Uhlenhaut (Technical University of Munich) receives an ERC Consolidator Grant to investigate the role of the glucocorticoid receptor in aging and circadian endocrinology. The funding goes to excellent scientists to consolidate an independent research team.

Dr. Jana Grune (German Heart Center Berlin) and Dr. Pieterjan Dierickx (Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research) each start a new junior research group. The DZHK will fund the research groups for the next six years.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Mahir Karakas, MBA (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, UKE) has been awarded the "Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professorship". The W3-Professorship for translational research and innovative clinical trials is located at the Department of Intensive Care Medicine and supports the UKE in terms of molecular translation and clinical trials.

Prof. Dr. Joachim Spranger (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) took over as new Dean at Charité. His new role comes with a seat on Charité’s Board of Directors, where he is responsible for research and teaching. He has headed Charité’s Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism since 2011.

Prof. Benjamin Meder (Heidelberg University Hospital) has accepted the call to the W3 professorship "Precision Digital Health" at Heidelberg University. His research focus is on digital biomarkers, wearables for prevention and therapy support, and AI in everyday clinical practice.

Prof. Dr. Samuel Sossalla (University Hospital Regensburg, University Medical Center Göttingen) was awarded the European "Outstanding Achievement Award" of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The award honors mid-career scientists who have made outstanding achievements over several years.

Prof. Fabian Theis (German Research Center for Environmental Health, Helmholtz Zentrum München) wins the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2023. The prestigious award of the German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) is endowed with 2.5 million euros. Theis conducts research in the field of artificial intelligence in biomedicine.

Laura Nickel (University of Lübeck), Harithaa Anandakuma and Valentin Vecera (both Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) receive the Dieter-Klaus-Förderpreis of the Deutsche Hypertonie Stiftung DHS®. The prize goes to young researchers throughout Europe who are involved in experimental, clinical or epidemiological hypertension research.

Dr Gabriele Schiattarella (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) has received an ERC Starting Grant to investigate how ketone metabolism and signalling are linked in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The grant supports outstanding young researchers.

PD Dr Thorsten Kessler (German Heart Centre Munich) has received an ERC Starting Grant for his research on cell-cell communication in cardiovascular inflammation. The grant supports outstanding young researchers.

Prof. Marc Dewey (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) received an honorary doctorate from Semmelweis University, Budapest/Hungary. Ten outstanding, internationally renowned professors with active links to the university have been awarded.

Dr Sarajo Mohanta (Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich) has received the 15,000 euro research prize of the Deutsche Herzstiftung. He has discovered that blood vessels affected by atherosclerosis and the brain are directly connected via nerve pathways and communicate with each other.

Dr Matthias Heinig (German Research Center for Environmental Health, Helmholtz Zentrum München) has received 50,000 euros to identify early detectable risk factors for atrial fibrillation after heart surgery. It is one of 14 projects for research into atrial fibrillation for which the Deutsche Herzstiftung is providing a total of one million euros.

Stephan Müller (University Hospital rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich) is receiving 110,000 euros to find out whether an app can help patients with atrial fibrillation to better adapt their lifestyle. It is one of 14 projects for research into atrial fibrillation for which the Deutsche Herzstiftung is providing a total of one million euros.

Prof. Constanze Schmidt and Dr Felix Wiedmann (both Heidelberg University Hospital) are receiving 100,000 euros to find out more about changes in heart tissue in atrial fibrillation. It is one of 14 projects for research into atrial fibrillation for which the Deutsche Herzstiftung is providing a total of one million euros.

Dr Justus Stenzig and Prof. Tanja Zeller (both University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, UKe) are receiving more than 70,000 euros to research the role of metabolic signalling molecules in atrial fibrillation. It is one of 14 projects for research into atrial fibrillation for which the Deutsche Herzstiftung is providing a total of one million euros.

Prof. Elisabeth Zeisberg (University Medical Center Göttingen) and her team receive 1.5 million euros in the framework of the SPRIND-Challenge "A Quantum Leap for New Antiviral Agents" of the Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovation, for the development of new antiviral agents.

Three DZHK Principal Investigators have made it into the first-ever global ranking of the "Best Female Scientists in the World 2022": Prof. Stefanie Dimmeler, Prof. Ingrid Fleming (both Goethe University Frankfurt) and Prof. Jeanette Erdmann (University of Lübeck). They are among 1000 female researchers with the highest H-index, as determined by the research.com portal.

Prof. Wolfgang Hoffmann (Greifswald University Hospital) is the new chairman of the German Network for Health Services Research. He has been a member of the board for ten years, most recently serving as vice chairman.

Prof. Ralf Brandes (University Hospital Frankfurt) receives the Robert Pfleger Research Award 2020 for his contributions to the physiology and pathophysiology of blood vessels. The award, which is endowed with 60,000 euros, has only now been presented to three prize winners due to the pandemic.

Prof. Derk Frank (University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel Campus) is the new director of the Department of Internal Medicine III, specializing in cardiology, angiology and internal intensive care medicine. Previously, he held the position of acting director of the clinic for two years.

Dr Julian Grünewald (TU Munich) was awarded the Life Sciences Bridge Award of the Aventis Foundation for his contribution to the genome editing of heart muscle cells - with 100,000 euros one of the most highly endowed prizes for young scientists in Germany.

Prof. Wolfram Döhner (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) is a new board member of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), one of the largest medical academic societies worldwide. The election for ESC Councillor for 2022-24 took place in June.

First prize in the Kurt and Erika Palm Foundation Science Award goes to Dr Alexander Steger, Klinikum rechts der Isar, TU Munich. The prize is awarded by the German Heart Foundation together with the German Society for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Cardiovascular Diseases (DGPR). It is endowed with a total of 10,000 euros.

Prof. Anselm Uebing (Kiel University) was elected at the end of June as the new Chairman of the Board of the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects, one of the world's largest research networks in the field of congenital heart defects.

Prof. Ralf Brandes (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main), is spokesperson of the new Collaborative Research Center 1531 "Damage Control by the Stroma-Vascular Compartment".

Prof. Johannes Backs (Heidelberg University Hospital) and his team receive funding to establish Collaborative Research Center 1550 "Molecular Circuits of Heart Disease" at Heidelberg University.

Dr Franziska Seidel (German Heart Center Berlin, DHZB), is investigating disease mechanisms of heart muscle inflammation in children with a grant of 60,000 euros from the German Heart Foundation's Gerd Killian Fund.

Prof. Ingrid Fleming (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main) receives the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine 2022 for her successful research into the molecular causes of vascular diseases associated with diabetes and circulatory diseases.

Tanja Zeller, Florian Leuschner, Ingrid Fleming, Matthias Gorenflo, Philipp Bengel, Petros Tirilomis, Steffen Desch, Mahir Karakas, Arne Thiele, Stefanie Maria Werhahn, David Velmeden, Teresa Gerhardt, Sebastian Ludwig, Julius Steffen, Jana Grune, Merve Keles, Felix Armin Trogisch, Julian U. G. Wagner, Julian Friebel, Simone-Franziska Glaser, Constanze Schmidt, Matthias Bock, Katharina Lechner, Denitsa Meteva.

Prof. Michael Gotthardt (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association) receives the ERC Advanced Grant for his project "Mechanoregulation of alternative splicing - a multi-omics and single cell approach to improved cardiac function".

Prof. Andreas Zeiher (Goethe University Frankfurt) receives the ERC Advanced Grant for his project "Clonal hematopoesis of indeterminate potential and degenerative aortic valve stenosis".

Prof. Stefanie Dimmeler (Goethe University Frankfurt) receives the ERC Advanced Grant for her project "The cardiac neurovascular interface in aging".

Prof. Fabian Theis (Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Centre for Environmental Health) receives the ERC Advanced Grant for his project "Learning and modelling the molecular response of single cells to drug perturbation".

Prof. Thomas Walther (University Hospital Frankfurt) receives funding of 152,000 euros from the German Heart Foundation and the Horst Haas and Irene Haas Scheuermann Foundation for a study on the prediction of life-threatening type A aortic dissection for a period of two years.

Dr Jan Philipp Junker (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association) has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his research on how the heart can heal itself. He is studying zebrafish hearts that are capable of doing this. The grant of two million euros for five years goes to excellent scientists at the beginning of an independent career.

Prof. Dagmar Krefting is the new director of the Institute of Medical Informatics at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG). She had already taken over as acting director of the Institute since September 2019.

Prof. Stefanie Dimmeler (University Hospital Frankfurt) receives the Otto Warburg Medal of the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) for her pioneering work in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The Medal has been endowed with prize money of 25,000 euros.

Dr Alessio Alogna (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) wins the Young Investigator Award at the "HFA Winter Meeting on Translational Heart Failure Research 2022" of the European Society of Cardiology with the lecture "Inhalation of peptide-loaded nanoparticles improves cardiac function in pacing-induced heart failure .”

Prof. Constanze Schmidt (Heidelberg University Hospital) has been awarded the “Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professorship” for her research work on atrial fibrillation.

Dr Mahir Karakas (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf) has been awarded the "Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professorship" for his COVID-19 research.

Prof. Roland Tilz takes over as head of the new Clinic for Rhythmology at the Lübeck Campus of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH). He previously headed the Electrophysiology Department, which was dissolved in the course of the new founding.

Dr Moritz von Scheidt (German Heart Center Munich) receives 1 million euros from the Corona Foundation for 5 years, with the long-term goal of being able to better assess the cardiovascular risk of CHD patients in the future and therefore better treat them with medication.

Genome Biologics, co-founded by DZHK scientist Prof. Jaya Krishnan (Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität), receives €9.8 million from EIC Accelerator to accelerate development of its clinical programmes for the prevention of cardiotoxicity and heart damage.

Lars Kaderali (University Medicine Greifswald) is appointed as a member of a new Corona Expert Council to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.

A research team led by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Zeisberg (University Medicine Göttingen) receives 700,000 euros from the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation in the competition for the most promising active ingredients in the fight against viral diseases.

Dr. Hendrik Bartolomaeus (Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Experimental and Clinical Research Center) receives the Siegenthaler Medal 2020 in silver from the Walter Siegenthaler Society for his research on high blood pressure.

Prof. Dr. Jan Scheitz (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) has been awarded the Stroke Prize 2021 by the German Society for Neurology (DGN) and the German Stroke Society (DSG) for his pioneering clinical work on heart-brain interaction in a stroke.

Dr. Benedikt Fels (University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck) received the "Young Investigator Award" for his work on the Piezo1 iron canal as a mediator of endothelial and vascular inflammation.

Prof. Jeanette Erdmann (University of Lübeck) receives the "BIH Excellence Award for Sex and Gender Aspects in Health Research 2021" from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) in the Charité.

17 DZHK researchers were included in the list of "Highly Cited Researchers 2021". This puts them in the top percent of the most frequently cited scientists in their respective fields worldwide.

For his research on fat cell biology, Alexander Bartelt (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, LMU) receives the research award of the German Obesity Society at the Obesity Congress 2021.

Angelos Karlas, leader of Clinical Bioengineering at MunichImaging, has won the Science Award 2021 of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gefäßchirurgie und Gefäßmedizin (DGG) for applying MSOT to molecular imaging of human carotid atherosclerosis.

Dr. Florian Weinberger and his team from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf received the Galenus Research Prize for their work on a new type of regenerative therapy approach for advanced heart failure.

Prof. Burkert Pieske (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and German Heart Center Berlin) has been awarded the Franz Loogen Prize at the DGK Heart Days 2021 for his studies on calcium metabolism in heart failure.

Prof. Heribert Schunkert (Deutsches Herzzentrum München) is the new Deputy Chairman of the Board of the German Heart Foundation. He has already been a member of the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board for ten years.

Prof. Fabian Theis (Helmholtz Zentrum München) is awarded the Hamburg Science Prize 2021.The Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg is honouring him as a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence in biomedical applications, above all in the area of single-cell biology.

Mahir Karakas from the DZHK-Site Hamburg obtained a BMBF grant (4.1 Mio. EUR) under his Co-affiliation "Department for Intensive Care Medicine". Within the project a randomized phase 2 trial will evaluate a new pharmacological compound in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Stephan Lehnart (University Medical Center Göttingen and University of Göttingen) has been elected as Deputy Director of the Hertha Sponer College and Executive Board member of the Excellence Cluster “Multiscale Bioimaging: From Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells”.

Dr Simone-Franziska Glaser (Goethe University Frankfurt) is the new spokesperson of the Young-DZHK at the RheinMain partner site. Dr. Michael Molitor (Mainz University Medical Centre) is deputy spokesperson.

Prof. Jeanette Erdmann (University of Lübeck) was elected as a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She is an expert in cardiogenetics. The Academy advises political decision-makers on socially relevant issues.

Prof. Michael Gotthardt (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC) and Prof. Benjamin Meder (Heidelberg University Hospital) are part of a transatlantic research group that is receiving $7 million from the Leducq Foundation to study the process of "alternative splicing" in heart muscle cells, which plays a role in protein production.

Prof. Michael Boutros (University Medical Centre Mannheim) is the spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Centre 1324 “Mechanisms and Functions of Wnt Signaling” and continues to be funded by the DFG with around 11.5 million euros.

S. Backhaus, M. Berlin, S.I. Bibli, C.S. Börschel, S. Dimmeler, J. Friebel, R. Hinkel, B. Köll, S. Müller, P. Münkler, H.A. Katus, F. Leuschner, C. Oeing, H. Sager, A. P. Schön, A. Schuster, H. Thiele, M. Völkers, F. L. Zimmermann, W.-H. Zimmermann

Prof. Jeanette Erdmann (University of Lübeck) coordinates PROGRESS, one of 18 international consortia selected by ERA PerMed - a consortium of funding organisations - to advance personalised medicine in Europe. PROGRESS uses AI to make better predictions of coronary collateral circulation in patients with coronary heart disease.

Prof. Reinier Boon (University Hospital Frankfurt| VU Medical Centre Amsterdam, NL) is awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his research on non-coding RNAs in aging-related diseases. The grant goes to excellent scientists at the beginning of an independent career.

Prof. Florian Leuschner and Tim Christian Kuhn (both from Heidelberg University Hospital) have been awarded the Wilhelm P. Winterstein Prize of the German Heart Foundation, worth 10,000 euros, for their method of investigating how heart muscle cells communicate after a heart attack.

Prof. Wolfgang Koenig (Department of Cardiology, German Heart Centre Munich) receives the Paul Morawitz Prize for his work in the field of epidemiology and biomarker research of cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Konstantin Stark (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) receives an ERC Starting Grant for his work on immunological mechanisms of recurrent thrombosis. The grant supports outstanding young researchers.

Dr. Dario Bongiovanni (Klinikum rechts der Isar) wins the Young Investigator Award at the ESC Congress 2020 in the session "Thrombosis" with his presentation "The pro-thrombotic transcriptomic signature of reticulated platelets in patients with chronic coronary syndrome".

Prof. Konstantinos Stellos (Goethe University Frankfurt | Newcastle University, UK) is the winner of the ESC Outstanding Achievement Award 2020, which honours two basic researchers for outstanding achievements in the early stages of their careers at the ESC Congress.

Prof. Stefanie Dimmeler (Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt) was awarded the gold medal at the ESC Congress 2020, which was held digitally. The ESC thus honors cardiologists for their outstanding achievements in medicine.

PD Dipl. Ing. Sophie Van Linthout, PhD (BCRT, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) is a new board member of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC. In the 2020-2022 legislature, she is one of two representatives of the "Basic Science Section".

Prof. Michael Potente, formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, has become a BIH professor with a focus on "Translational Vascular Biomedicine" at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) since August 2020.

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Diana Lindner (Universitäres Herz- und Gefäßzentrum Hamburg) receives 80.000 euros from the Deutsche Herzstiftung for the project „Kardiale Inflammation durch direkte Virusinfektion bei verstorbenen COVID-19 Patienten”.

Dr. Leo Johannes Nicolai (LMU Klinikum der Universität München) receives support for his project „HEART Immunophenotyping in COVID-19 – Analyse von Blut-Leukozyten bei COVID-19 erkrankten Patienten mit KHK, Herzinsuffizienz, und kardiovaskulärem Risikoprofil” with a grant of 130.000 euros from the Deutsche Herzstiftung.

Dr. Katharina Lechner (Deutsches Herzzentrum München) receives 53.900 euros from the Deutsche Herzstiftung for the project „Metabolisch-inflammatorischer Phänotyp und klinischer Verlauf bei COVID-19”.

Dr. Sebastian Cremer (Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt) receives a grant for the project „Defining an immune cell signature of COVID-19 infections in patients with atherosclerosis". The project will be supported by the Deutsche Herzstiftung with 70.000 euros.

Prof. Dr. Eike Nagel (Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt) receives 110.000 euros from the Deutsche Herzstiftung for the project „Erfassung der kardialen Herzbeteiligung in COVID-19 Überlebenden ”.

Prof. Gerd Hasenfuß (University Medical Center Göttingen) is the spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Centre 1002 "Modulatory Units in Heart Failure", which has been extended for another four years and is funded by the German Research Foundation with 14.6 million euros.

Prof. Wolfram Hubertus Zimmermann (University Medical Center Göttingen) and four project partners are the second winner in the innovation competition "Organ replacement from the laboratory" with the IndiHEART project and receive 2 million euros from the BMBF.

Prof. Lucie Carrier (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf) is the European coordinator of a research group that is receiving 5.6m euros from the Leducq Foundation within the Transatlantic Network of Excellence and is investigating the role of the cytoskeleton in heart failure.

Prof. Florian Leuschner (Heidelberg University Hospital) is the European coordinator of a research group that is supported by the Leducq Foundation within the Transatlantic Network of Excellence. The team is investigating inflammation and fibrosis as hallmarks of heart failure.

Prof. Wolfram Zimmermann (University Medical Center Göttingen) is the European coordinator of a research group supported by the Leducq Foundation within the Transatlantic Network of Excellence. The team is investigating genome editing for the treatment of heart failure.

Julia Büschges (Robert Koch Institute) received the Young Investigator Award for her contribution on childhood cardiovascular risk factors, which she presented at the virtual ESC Preventive Cardiology Congress 2020.

PD Dr. Thorsten Kessler (German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University of Munich) receives the Prevention Prize 2020 of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM).

The physicist Prof. Jens Frahm (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry) is awarded the Werner von Siemens Ring of the foundation of the same name for his achievements. He has further developed MRI into a fast and thus clinically mature technology.