Award for Anna Aschenbrenner

Bonn/Heidelberg (Germany). October 22, 2025. Dr. Anna Aschenbrenner, a scientist at DZNE’s Bonn site, has been awarded the “Tobias Welte Prize” of the German Sepsis Society, which carries a value of 3,000 euros. She received the award for a scientific study published in the renowned journal “CELL”. In this investigation, she and her research team deciphered the mechanisms underlying the life-saving effects of the drug dexamethasone in COVID-19 patients.

“Our study was the first to unravel the molecular mechanisms responsible for the life-saving effects of dexamethasone in severe COVID-19,” said Aschenbrenner. “This project was based on a close collaboration with the Charité in Berlin. Using single-cell analyses, we were able to show that the response of specific types of white blood cells serves as an early and reliable indicator of therapeutic success. This approach not only enables precise prediction of an individual’s response to dexamethasone but also opens up new perspectives for the development of personalized therapies and companion diagnostics for a wide range of diseases. Our work thus lays the foundation for more targeted and effective treatment of severe infections and beyond. In fact, we are pursuing similar precision medicine approaches regarding dementias.”