Saarbrücken, 04 April 2025 - On April 3, 2025, the Hans and Ruth Giessen Foundation awarded its annual prizes to young talents in the fields of natural sciences, medicine and classical music. The funding is intended to enable awardees to pursue more ambitious projects, such as study stays or independent research initiatives. At this year's ceremony, two young researchers from HIPS, Dr. Carsten Seyfert and Dr. Viktoria Wagner, were awarded the 25,000 Euro prize. This marks the fourth time that HIPS researchers have received the prestigious early-career award: in 2021, Dr. Chantal Bader was awarded the sponsorship prize in the natural sciences category, followed by Dr. Fabian Kern in the medicine category in 2022.
Carsten Seyfert received the 2025 Giessen Prize in the natural sciences category. During his PhD in the Department of Microbial Natural Products from 2020 to 2024, he focused on characterizing and optimizing a new class of antibiotics known as darobactins. Under the supervision of Prof Rolf Müller, he was part of an interdisciplinary research team that successfully established and applied biotechnological approaches for the production and optimization of these natural compounds. The novel darobactin derivatives he developed exhibit up to 128 times higher activity than the originally discovered natural compound and are effective against several hospital pathogens classified as critical by the World Health Organization (WHO)—even in cases where these pathogens have already developed resistance to other antibiotics. Seyfert currently works as a postdoctoral researcher in Rolf Müller's department at HIPS, where he continues to advance the development of darobactins. He intends to use the Hans and Ruth Giessen funding for personal development, including participation in international conferences and financial support for overseas research stays and business administration training. In the long term, he would like to use this knowledge to facilitate the commercialization of darobactins through a start-up company.
Viktoria Wagner received the 2025 Giessen Prize in the medicine category for her research on the role of non-coding RNAs in aging processes. During her PhD in the Clinical Bioinformatics Department under Prof Andreas Keller, she created a comprehensive expression atlas of aging-related non-coding RNA signatures. These datasets will be expanded and analyzed in follow-up projects, with a particular focus on identifying potential targets for therapeutic interventions. Her research provides a promising foundation for developing drugs to treat age-related diseases, particularly in the field of neurodegeneration. With the support of the Hans and Ruth Giessen Foundation, Wagner aims to translate her findings from mouse models into human model systems. After completing her PhD, she started a postdoctoral position at Stanford University, where she collaborates with a research partner from her doctoral studies to further advance their projects.
