Awards for two DRFZ researchers at the SFI-DGfI Joint Meeting

Two early-career researchers from the DRFZ were recognised for their outstanding doctoral work at the joint annual meeting of the German Society for Immunology (DGfI) and the French Society for Immunology/Société Française d’Immunologie (SFI), which took place in Strasbourg, France at the end of September 2023.

Lennard Ostendorf awarded the Hans Hench Thesis Prize for Clinical Immunology Lennard Ostendorf, from the group of Tobias Alexander and Falk Hiepe, received the Hans Hench Thesis Prize for Clinical Immunology for his dissertation "CD38 as a new therapeutic target in systemic lupus erythematosus". The €2000 prize is awarded biennially for the best dissertation carried out in a German-speaking region in the field of rheumatology with focus on inflammation, autoimmunity, and/or immunodeficiency.

Otto Westphal Thesis Prize for Timo Rückert Timo Rückert, from Chiara Romagnani's group, was awarded the 2023 Otto Westphal Thesis Prize for his research investigating the development and maintenance of innate immune memory in viral infections. The Otto Westphal Doctoral Prize, endowed with € 1,500, is awarded for the best dissertation in the field of immunology conducted in a German-speaking region. Furthermore Timo Rückert's presentation at the RIKEN-Tsinghua International Summer Program (RISP) 2023 in Japan in June 2023 was awarded as one of the best presentations.