Awards and Grants

Prof. Dr. Constanze Schmidt (University Medical Centre Göttingen, UMG) has been the university professor of cardiology at the Göttingen Medical Faculty and director of the Clinic for Cardiology and Pneumology at the University Medical Centre Göttingen since 1 July 2025.

Among the top 100 scientists in the ‘Best Medicine Scientists in Germany’ ranking are 18 DZHK researchers.

Dr Leo Nicolai (Munich University Hospital) has received a 600,000-euro grant from the Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation (EKFS) to research the biorhythm of clot formation (thrombosis).

Dr Christopher Dooley, Lara Falcucci and Prof. Didier Stainier (all Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research) were awarded the Eva Luise Köhler Research Prize for their work on harnessing transcriptional adaptation as a therapeutic approach for the previously incurable Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Prof Christian Weber (University Hospital Munich) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his project ‘Modulating non-canonical functions of microRNAs in cardiovascular disease’. This is already the third ERC grant in his career.

Dr Natalia Solovyova and Prof. Christoph Knosalla (both German Heart Centre Berlin) receive around 600,000 euros in DFG funding for their AI project heartCAAS for surgical planning in cardiac surgery.

Dr Mahak Singhai, Dr Chi Chung Wu (both University Medicine Mannheim), Dr Maarten van den Hoogenhof and Dr Arica Beisaw (both Heidelberg University Hospital) have joined the Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC) as new guest group leaders. At HI-TAC, Berlin, Mannheim and Heidelberg combine their expertise in cardiovascular research.

Prof Dr Julia Szendrödi (Heidelberg University Hospital) has been elected as the new President of the German Diabetes Association (DDG). The General Assembly appointed her for a term of office of two years.

Prof. Stefan Engelhardt (Technical University of Munich) is the spokesperson for the new NUCLEATE Cluster of Excellence, which conducts research into nucleic acids. It is one of 70 projects funded by the German federal and state governments as part of the Excellence Strategy.

Prof. Stefanie Dimmeler (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital) and Prof. Thomas Braun (Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research) are the spokespersons for the expanded Cardio-Pulmonary Institute Cluster of Excellence.