DZNE Foundation Honors Dr. Carolin Meyer with Best Paper Award 2025

Munich/Germany, Januar 9, 2026. Last year, the DZNE Foundation announced a prize for the best scientific publication for the fourth time. Submissions for the “Best Paper Award 2025” were open to publications by first authors from our Munich site. Eligible papers had to have been published in renowned international journals within the last twelve months prior to the call and to have made a significant contribution to research on pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases or the care of people affected.

The award ceremony recently took place at DZNE Munich: The prize was awarded to neuroscientist Dr. Carolin Meyer (formerly a member of the research group led by Prof. Jochen Herms) for her paper “Early Locus Coeruleus noradrenergic axon loss drives olfactory dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease”, published in the journal Nature Communications.

Scientific research is almost always a team effort, and scientific papers therefore typically have multiple authors. However, the so-called first authors, to whom the Best Paper Award is dedicated – in this case Carolin Meyer – hold a prominent position, as they have carried out the major share of the work.

Why do people with Alzheimer’s lose their sense of smell early?

A fading sense of smell can be one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease, often occurring years before cognitive impairments manifest. Although olfactory dysfunction has long been discussed as a possible early warning signal, the biological mechanisms underlying this symptom remained largely unclear. Together with colleagues, Carolin Meyer has now shown that immune cells of the brain, known as microglia, play a significant role.

The study focused on nerve fiber connections between two brain regions that are crucial for olfaction: the olfactory bulb and the locus coeruleus. The olfactory bulb, located in the forebrain, analyzes sensory information from the nose’s scent receptors. The locus coeruleus, a small region of the brainstem, influences this processing by means of long nerve fibers originating from neurons in the locus coeruleus and extending all the way to the olfactory bulb.

The study findings show that these nerve fibers are damaged very early in the course of Alzheimer’s disease. Microglia detect changes in the membranes of the fibers that occur even at early stages of Alzheimer’s and subsequently dismantle the connections in a targeted manner. The loss of these fiber connections directly disrupts signal transmission within the olfactory system and leads to impairments of the sense of smell.

These early processes were investigated using several methods, including studies in mouse models with features of Alzheimer’s disease, positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s or mild cognitive impairment, and olfactory tests with standardized odor pens to assess functional changes. In addition, brain tissue from deceased patients with Alzheimer’s from the DZNE Brain Bank Munich was analyzed.

The findings provide the first coherent immunological explanation for why loss of the sense of smell is among the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. At the same time, they lay important groundwork for the development of methods for early detection of the disease. In the future, simple olfactory tests could help identify people with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease at a very early stage, giving them early access to further diagnostics and novel therapeutic approaches. Moreover, the study suggests that PET scans of the olfactory bulb could be used in the future to identify biomarkers of early inflammatory processes in the brain.

A jury of international experts decided on the award winner. The funding was provided by a donor to the DZNE Foundation in order to specifically support research at the Munich site.

The next call for applications for the Munich site's Best Paper Award will be announced in fall 2026.