25th September 2026

Award Winners 2026

A molecular biologist, a neuroscientist, and a chemist are being honored today with the Life Sciences Bridge Award for their outstanding research achievements:  Jonathan Bohlen, Lukas Kunz and Leonhard Möckl.

The most highly endowed award for young scientists in the life sciences in Germany will be presented this evening at the Literaturhaus in Frankfurt am Main. Jonathan Bohlen, Lukas Kunz, and Leonhard Möckl, who have attracted attention for their significant research achievements in the fields of immune diseases, memory disorders, and cancer, will each receive a cash prize of 100,000 euros. While working on his doctoral thesis at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Jonathan Bohlen was the first to observe human ribosomes scanning the genetic code that mRNAs—transcribed from DNA—deliver for protein synthesis. In the process, he discovered the function of the translation factor MCTS-1. As a postdoc, he demonstrated that its absence causes the rare genetic disorder MSDM: an important signaling molecule involved in the immune response is not produced despite the presence of mRNA. At LMU Munich, Bohlen is now working to develop therapeutic applications for this newly discovered regulatory axis. Lukas Kunz is researching how memory works at the Department of Epileptology at the University Hospital of Bonn. Together with epilepsy patients, he studies the activity of individual neurons during virtual memory tasks. In doing so, he has shown that high-frequency oscillations in the hippocampus coordinate the formation and storage of associations. His research could lay new groundwork for the diagnosis and treatment of memory disorders. In 2025, Leonhard Möckl, at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen, mapped the topography of the sugar coat (glycocalyx) surrounding our body’s cells at a resolution of less than one millionth of a millimeter. This made it possible to describe its function for the first time. Möckl is investigating how cancer cells and immune cells alter their sugar coating. In doing so, he is highlighting the clinical significance of this structure. The Life Sciences Bridge Award is intended to support researchers on their way to a professorship and promote their innovative approaches. Through the targeted promotion of talented researchers at German universities, the award contributes to strengthening cutting-edge research in Germany.