Dr. Gieselmann receives Postdoctoral Award from the Robert Koch Foundation
Dr. Lutz Gieselmann has received the Robert Koch Foundation’s Postdoctoral Award in the field of immunology, which comes with 5,000 euros in prize money. His award-winning research on antiviral immunity and antibodies was supported in part by two DZIF Academy programs.
Dr. Gieselmann conducts his research at the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Cologne in the Laboratory for Experimental Immunology headed by DZIF researcher Prof. Dr. Florian Klein. His research focuses on harnessing humoral immune responses against viral infections for new preventive and therapeutic approaches. To this end, Dr. Gieselmann has developed efficient methods for isolating and analyzing the function of human monoclonal antibodies. Using these methods, Dr. Gieselmann identified new broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1. These antibodies exhibit promising preclinical properties and have already been licensed for further clinical development.
The Robert Koch Foundation awards its Postdoctoral Awards each year to outstanding early-career researchers in the fields of hygiene and microbiology, immunology, and virology. The awards are presented in collaboration with the respective scientific societies. The awards recognize research achievements that contribute to a better understanding of infectious diseases and open up new perspectives for their prevention and treatment. The research underlying these findings was supported in part by the DZIF Academy’s Clinical Leave and MD/PhD programs.
The DZIF Academy supports early-career researchers at different stages of their scientific careers. Its programs provide protected research time and opportunities to pursue additional scientific qualifications in infection research.
