April, 2025

This year's DGP Research Award for Clinical Medicine, endowed with €10,000, is awarded to Dr. Judith Brock (Thoraxklinik Heidelberg) and Associate Professor Dr. Mustafa Abdo (LungenClinic Grosshansdorf / Thoraxklinik Heidelberg). Judith Brock demonstrated in a study involving over 500 COPD patients how the risk of pneumothorax following valve implantation can be better predicted—a crucial step toward personalized therapeutic decisions. Mustafa Abdo conducted two studies investigating the significance of cardiac impairment and the impact of smoking status on inflammatory processes in COPD. His findings suggest that former smokers, in particular, could benefit from targeted interleukin-33 therapy.

Furthermore, Dr Katharina Buschulte (Thoraxklinik Heidelberg) was awarded the Pulmonary Fibrosis Research Prize by Lungenfibrose e.V. for her work ‘Data from the EXCITING-ILD Registry - Baseline Characteristics, Hospitalisations and Disease Progression’. These data from the EXCITING-ILD Registry, including hospitalisations and disease progression of patients, help to significantly improve the understanding of interstitial lung diseases (ILD).

The Alpha1 Science Award from CSL Behring was also presented at the DGP Congress. Dr Philipp Höger, assistant physician in pneumology and respiratory medicine at the Thoraxklinik Heidelberg, recieved this price for his clinical work on alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATM).

The 2025 Research Award of the René Baumgart Foundation is shared by TLRC doctoral candidate Memoona Shaukat (MSc, Thoraxklinik Heidelberg) and Dr. rer. nat. Alexander Seidinger (Ruhr University Bochum). Memoona Shaukat receives the award for her work titled “Hereditary Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension – New Genetic Insights and Environmental Triggers.” The René Baumgart Foundation was established in 2001 by the patient advocacy group Pulmonale Hypertonie e.V. to support clinical research into pulmonary hypertension.

The awards were presented at the Pneumology Congress in Leipzig on April 10 and 11.

Further Reading

Pressmitteilung der DGP (in german)

Pressemitteilung Alpha 1 Science Award 2025 (in german)

Pressemitteilung Lungefibrose e.V. (in german)

Pressemitteilung der René Baumgart-Stiftung (in german)