30th April 2026

A boost for research

Dr. Frauke Mücksch of Heidelberg University Hospital, last year’s winner of the Life Sciences Bridge Award, was honored with the Robert Koch Award in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in April and entered into the city’s Golden Book. The award, presented since 1980 by Robert Koch’s hometown, recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of infectious disease biology. “Laborjournal” spoke with the virologist about the Bridge Award. Below, we publish an abridged version of the interview that appeared in “Laborjournal” on April 23. At what stage of your career did you receive the prize money last year? Mücksch: As a junior group leader, that is, in the early stages of my scientific independence—about three years after starting my own research group. How has the Life Sciences Bridge Award helped you? Mücksch: The award has given me visibility and momentum. In a competitive field like HIV research, it is very valuable when your own work receives external recognition early on. At the same time, it provides concrete support for further expanding the research group and creates additional freedom to implement my own ideas. I am therefore very grateful to the Aventis Foundation for this wonderful award. How have you used or will you use the prize money? Mücksch: We are using the prize money for our research on HIV latency, persistence, and reactivation. Specifically, the project aims to better understand why HIV can hide permanently in certain cells. To do this, we are developing systems that allow us to place the virus specifically at very specific locations in the genome and then investigate how this affects its activity. The prize money gives us the freedom to quickly test new ideas that are still too experimental for large funding programs—and that is often where the most exciting breakthroughs occur. Thank you very much, and continued success!