Professor Rolf Müller, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at Saarland University, has been awarded the Mannich Medal by the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG). Awarded in honour of the German chemist Carl Mannich, the medal is the DPhG's highest scientific accolade and is presented annually for “outstanding achievements in the field of pharmaceutical sciences”. The medal was presented at the DPhG's annual conference in Freiburg on October 1, 2025. HIPS is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in collaboration with Saarland University.

Influenza is much more than just a nasty cold – it is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases worldwide, claiming around half a million lives every year. What makes it particularly insidious is that flu viruses are contagious even before the first symptoms appear. Despite this threat, the diagnostic options available to date are far from ideal. They are often expensive, complicated to use and simply unavailable in many poorer regions of the world. A research team led by Professor Lorenz Meinel from the University of Würzburg in cooperation with researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research has developed the technology behind a new self-test for influenza, recently published in ACS Central Science.

Five young scientists were honored in Innsbruck on Wednesday for their internationally outstanding work: The Life Sciences Research Awards Austria 2025 of the Austrian Society for Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology (ÖGMBT) went to Victoria Deneke (IMP Vienna), Rémi Hocq (TU Vienna) and Eugenia Pankevich (CeMM). The Life Sciences PhD Awards Austria 2025 went to Yannick Weyer (Medical University of Innsbruck) and Max Kellner (formerly IMBA, since 2025 Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)).