Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2025 Awarded to Neurologist Lukas Bunse

Fighting brain tumors with immune cells – this is the goal of neurologist Dr. Dr. Lukas Bunse. This year, he received the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG). He was honored for his research on developing and implementing immunotherapeutic strategies for patients with high-grade gliomas. The prize, worth 200,000 euros, is Germany’s most significant award for early-career researchers. The prize money can be used over a period of up to three years to further their research. Lukas Bunse conducts his research as a clinician scientist at the Mannheim Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). He also works as a neurologist at the University Hospital Mannheim.

His research focuses on high-grade gliomas, which arise from mutations in brain or spinal cord cells and are extremely difficult to treat. Through his work, Lukas Bunse aims to improve our understanding of brain tumors and develop effective immunotherapies based on these insights. These therapies work by genetically modifying immune cells to specifically target tumor cells. His research findings have "the potential to complement or even replace current therapies with a less invasive treatment approach. Furthermore, there is the prospect that these strategies could eventually be applied to other brain tumors or even other types of cancer.

Lukas Bunse studied medicine at Heidelberg University and University College London. His doctoral thesis in medicine focused on certain spontaneous immune responses in glioma patients. In 2020, he completed a second doctoral thesis in biology. He is a clinical scientist at the Mannheim Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and completed his specialist training in neurology at the Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital Mannheim from 2019 to 2024. Since 2024, he has been a senior neurologist. He also leads an independent research team in the Clinical Cooperation Unit Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumor Immunology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. He received the Ruprecht-Karls Prize in 2018 and the Hella-Bühler Prize, worth 100,000 euros, from Heidelberg University in 2019. In 2023, he was awarded the Novartis Prize for therapy-relevant immunological research from the German Society for Immunology.

Since 1977, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize has been awarded annually to outstanding early-career researchers. The award honors independent profiles and research findings that enrich the scientific community, ensuring that these researchers will continue to deliver excellent contributions in the future. The award ceremony took place on June 3 in Berlin.