Awards and Grants

Prof. Dr. med. Konstantinos Stellos (University of Heidelberg, Mannheim Medical Faculty) has been appointed to the newly established W3 professorship for internal medicine – specialising in angiology and diabetology – and will take over as head of the new VI Medical Clinic at Mannheim University Hospital on 1st of December 2025.

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Mahir Karakas (University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf) receives the Martina Grote Science Award ‘Frauenherzen’ (Women's Hearts) worth 10,000 € for his work ‘Intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in heart failure with iron deficiency (FAIR-HF2 DZHK05 trial): Sex-specific outcomes’.

Prof. Dr. med. Harald Langer (University Medical Centre Mannheim) has been awarded a grant of €1.3 million together with three local partners from industry and science. The grant will support the project ‘Innovative AI-assisted heart valve validation’, which aims to develop an objective measurement method for successful operations and optimised patient care.

Once again this year, DZHK scientists have made it into the Highly Cited Researchers ranking. This means they are among the world's ‘most cited minds’ in their respective fields.

Prof. Alexander Meyer (German Heart Centre Berlin) has been appointed as a Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine.

Prof. Dr. Maike Frye (University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf) receives the DGKL's Gábor Szász Prize worth €15,000 to conduct research in the field of cardiovascular biomedicine and the development of animal-free test systems that exemplify the 3Rs principles (Replace, Reduce, Refine).

Dr Julian Wagner (Institute for Cardiovascular Regeneration, Goethe University Frankfurt) is receiving over half a million euros in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to research the inter- and transgenerational metabolic imprinting of the neuro-cardiopulmonary interface in the context of health and ageing.

DZHK-PI Prof. Dr. Hendrik Sager (Technical University of Munich) has been appointed W3 Professor for Cardiovascular Inflammation.

Dr Tharusan Thevathasan (German Heart Centre at Charité) receives Charité's 2025 Innovative Teaching Award for his project “STS – Students Teach Students Academy”, which arose from an open dialogue with PJ students.

Dr Shqipdona Lahu (German Heart Centre Munich) receives the Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize 2025 for her outstanding dissertation entitled ‘Novel Aspects of Antiplatelet Drug Therapy in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention’.