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Prof. Dr Jan Lohmann, an internationally outstanding researcher in the field of biosciences who has also, in particular, advocated for the development of interdisciplinary networks and the promotion of early-career researchers, is the recipient of the Lautenschläger Research Prize for 2025. His research at Heidelberg University’s Centre for Organismal Studies focuses on the stem cell biology of plants and their ability to renew and regenerate themselves. The award comes with prize money of 250,000 euros.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 27 November 2025
Jan Lohmann Receives Lautenschläger Research Prize
Award is endowed with 250,000 euros – Junior Researcher Prize goes to Lukas Bunse
Prof. Dr Jan Lohmann, an internationally outstanding researcher in the field of biosciences who has also, in particular, advocated for the development of interdisciplinary networks and the promotion of early-career researchers, is the recipient of the Lautenschläger Research Prize for 2025. His research at Heidelberg University’s Centre for Organismal Studies focuses on the stem cell biology of plants and their ability to renew and regenerate themselves. The award comes with prize money of 250,000 euros. Dr h.c. Manfred Lautenschläger, sponsor of the prize and Honorary Senator of Ruperto Carola, also grants a prize to outstanding early-career researchers. Worth 25,000 euros, this award goes to PD Dr Dr Lukas Bunse. The neurologist and physician does research at the Medical Faculty Mannheim on how the body’s own immune system can be used to fight brain tumors, particularly gliomas. For the first time the Lautenschläger Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Research will be awarded. The recipient is Heidelberg theologian Prof. Dr Dr Michael Welker. The ceremony to award the most highly endowed research prize by a private donor in Germany is taking place on 5 December 2025.
Prize-winner Jan Lohmann
With his research studies, Jan Lohmann explores the question of how plants can renew themselves over their whole lifetime and even completely regenerate damaged parts. With the aid of the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana and using modern methods from genetics, molecular biology and computer modeling, he studies the mechanisms that control the balance between cell division and differentiation – how plants can continuously grow and at the same time still develop stable forms. His investigations focus on a key gene which influences the growth and development of the plant as a molecular director together with plant hormones. Currently Prof. Lohmann is particularly interested in the regeneration of roots, which are the second stem cell center of plants beside the shoot. In this new field he is exploring why the roots’ capacity for self-renewal declines with age. Prof. Lohmann’s work does not merely touch upon the foundations of developmental biology, since influencing the regeneration capacity of roots in a targeted manner could open up avenues for making plants more resistant to drought and other stress factors. “Jan Lohmann’s research stands for a unique mix of curiosity, precision and the will to understand the most profound biological connections,” according to the statement of reasons for granting the Lautenschläger Research Prize.
Jan Lohmann studied biology at LMU Munich. After earning his doctorate in Munich and Jena in 1999, he took up a postdoctoral position at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla (USA). In 2002 the scientist returned to Germany, first as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen. Six years later he accepted an appointment at the Faculty of Biosciences at Heidelberg University. At the Centre for Organismal Studies Prof. Lohmann heads the Stem Cell Biology department. For two funding periods, Prof. Lohmann was spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Centre “Maintenance and Differentiation of Stem Cells”. In this interdisciplinary consortium, which was funded for twelve years, scientists explored the basic mechanisms controlling stem cell self-maintenance and differentiation across organisms. CRC 873 made it possible for many young researchers to receive support on their way to a professorship. For his outstanding contributions to the understanding of plant development, Jan Lohmann has been awarded a number of prestigious awards.
Prize-winner Lukas Bunse
The Lautenschläger Junior Researcher Prize goes to neurologist and physician Lukas Bunse. His research focuses on high-grade gliomas, which arise through mutations of brain or spinal marrow cells and are extremely difficult to treat. With his studies, the scientist wants to contribute to a better understanding of brain tumors and use these findings to develop effective immunotherapies. This involves genetically engineering the body’s own immune cells so that they target tumor cells. Dr Bunse has been able to show from his studies that certain genetic changes in gliomas can be used as target structures for a therapeutic immune response. These groundbreaking results formed the basis for new clinical studies on tumor vaccinations.
Lukas Bunse studied medicine at Heidelberg University and University College London (United Kingdom). After his doctoral thesis in medicine, he earned another doctorate in biology in 2020. He is a clinical scientist at the Medical Faculty Mannheim and completed his specialist training as a neurologist in the Neurological Department of the University Hospital Mannheim. Since 2024 he has served as senior physician in Neurology. In addition, Dr Bunse is an independent team leader in the Clinical Cooperation Unit Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumor Immunology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. For his research studies the German Research Foundation selected him for a Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize – the most important prize in Germany for early-career researchers.
Lautenschläger Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Research
The Lautenschläger Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Research goes to Michael Welker, longstanding director of the Research Center for International and Interdisciplinary Theology (FIIT), which he founded. Appointed Professor for Systematic Theology/Dogmatics at Ruperto Carola in 1991, the scholar now serves as Senior Professor of the Heidelberg Faculty of Theology. Under his leadership FIIT has developed into a place of exchange, offering both young and established researchers space to work at the interface of theology, philosophy, and the natural and social sciences. Prof. Welker’s research interests include questions relating to Christology, the doctrine of creation, anthropology and eschatology. In addition, he is engaged in the dialogue between theology and natural sciences as well as interdisciplinary biblical theology. International visiting professorships, for instance in Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge or at Emory University, along with invitations to participate in well-known lecture series are proof of his reputation as an eminent scholar in the field of systematic theology. Prof. Welker has received multiple honors for his work, including two honorary doctorates from foreign universities.
Lautenschläger Research Prize
Worth 250,000 euros, the Lautenschläger Research Prize is awarded every two years for special accomplishments in leading-edge research. The distinction is intended to honor scientists from Heidelberg University as well as other national and international researchers with special ties to Ruperto Carola through scientific cooperation. Entrepreneur Manfred Lautenschläger established the award in 2001 to foster outstanding researchers who are actively engaged in advancing the discovery process. An interdisciplinary board of internationally connected scientists selects the potential prize recipients, who can be nominated for the Lautenschläger Research Prize from any discipline.
Lautenschläger Junior Researcher Prize
The first Lautenschläger Junior Researcher Prize was awarded in 2018. Eligible for selection are habilitation candidates, junior research group leaders or junior professors who can show outstanding scientific achievement and particularly innovative research approaches. The prize money of 25,000 euros helps to promote these young researchers in their personal scientific development and to support their research activity.
Award ceremony
Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Heidelberg University, will open the award ceremony. Then the prize-winners for 2023 will report on their work – physicist Prof. Dr Christine Selhuber-Unkel from the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials of Heidelberg University and biologist Dr Victoria Ingham from the Parasitology Unit at the Centre for Infectious Diseases of Heidelberg University Hospital. After the presentation of this year’s awards, the two prize-winners for this year will engage in a scientific conversation, with Prof. Dr Joachim Wittbrodt (biosciences) and Prof. Dr Dr Felix Sahm (neuropathology) joining in. The awarding of the Lautenschläger Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Research will follow. Markus Lautenschläger will speak on behalf of the donor of the three academic honors; his address will conclude the event. The moderator of the award ceremony is Markus Brock.
Note for newsrooms:
The award ceremony for the Lautenschläger Research Prize is taking place on 5 December 2025 in the Great Hall of the Old University, starting at 5pm. Media representatives are warmly invited to attend and report on it. Registration is requested via an email to presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de.
Contact:
Heidelberg University
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Press Office, phone +49 6221 54-2133
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
Jan Lohmann Receives Lautenschläger Research Prize – Award is endowed with 250,000 euros – Junior Researcher Prize goes to Lukas Bunse
https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/research-service/university-research-p... – Lautenschläger Research Prize
https://www.cos.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research-groups/stammzellbiologie – Jan Lohmann
https://www.dkfz.de/en/cell-therapy – Lukas Bunse
https://www.theologie.uni-heidelberg.de/de/personen/michael-welker – Michael Welker
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