Awards & achievements within the HCNS network 

  • Schilling Research Award of the German Neuroscience Society (2025) – Dr. Diane Rekow (Alexander Humboldt Fellow at the Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology lab of the University of Hamburg)

  • ERC Starting Grant (2024) – Katarzyna Grochowska

  • Adolf Fick-Prize of German Physiological Societies (2024) – Ileana Hanganu-Opatz

  • Corona Award (2024) – Karoline Degenhardt

  • ERC Advanced Grant (2023) “cICMs – Causal Roles of Intrinsic Coupling Modes: an Integrated Multiscale Framework for Cognitive Network Dynamics” – Andreas Engel

  • ERC Starting Grant (2023) – Sebastian Bitzenhofer

  • ERC Consolidator Grant (2023) “BrainScape: How the physical environment shapes the human brain” – Simone Kühn

  • ERC Consolidator Grant (2022) “EXPAT – How EXPectation and ATtention shape visual information processing in the human brain – Arjen Alink

  • ERC Synergy Grant (2021) “Microglia Control of Physiological Brain States” – Thomas Oertner

  • ERC Advanced Grant (2020) “PainPersist – Psychobiological mechanisms of pain persistence” – Christian Büchel

  • ERC Starting Grant (2020) – “TackingMinds – Tracking the decisions of others with the own mind” – Sebastian Gluth

  • Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development (2019) – Simone Kühn

  • Schilling Award (2016) – Tim Magnus

  • ERC Starting Grant (2016) “Take control! Towards novel training regimes enhancing inhibition and impulse control in health and psychiatric disease” – Simone Kühn

  • Heisenberg-Professorship W3 (2016) – Simone Kühn

  • Heisenberg-Professorship W3 (2015) – Tobias H. Donner

  • ERC Consolidator Grant (2015) “Cellular substrate of abnormal network maturation in neuropsychiatric disorders” (PSYCHOCELL) – Ileana Hanganu-Opatz

  • Emmy Noether Fellowship (2009) – Ileana Hanganu-Opatz

The winners of our Best Thesis Award 2025

Dr. Alice Senta Ryba

This thesis presents a multicenter analysis of adult patients with H3 K27M-mutated gliomas, a rare and highly aggressive type of brain tumor. H3 K27M-mutated gliomas represent a recently defined molecular subgroup of diffuse midline gliomas, characterized by a mutation in the histone H3 gene leading to a loss of H3K27 trimethylation. While these tumors are well-studied in children, they are rare in adults, and data on their clinical behavior and treatment response remain limited. This multicenter study investigates the clinical, radiological, histopathological, and surgical features of adult patients with H3 K27M-mutated gliomas, aiming to identify prognostic factors and evaluate the role of surgical intervention.

In conclusion, the study identifies ATRX status, tumor location, and preoperative KPS as significant predictors of overall survival in adult patients with H3 K27M-mutated gliomas. Importantly, the dataset indicates that resection does not offer a survival advantage over biopsy. This research provides valuable insights into the behavior and prognosis of these rare tumors in adults, potentially guiding future clinical decisions and research endeavors.

Dr. Hendrik Heinbockel

On the Trail of Memory Traces: How Stress Affects Initial Memory Formation and Updating Processes

Memory formation and updating are core cognitive functions, highly sensitive to stress. This thesis presents three multi-day neuroimaging studies addressing how stress impacts these processes. Study I used MEG to examine theta oscillations during emotional encoding. Studies II and III used fMRI in a three-day associative task, with stress induced behaviorally (II) or pharmacologically via noradrenaline or cortisol (III). Across studies, the hippocampus and occipito-parietal regions emerged as central to stress-related memory dynamics. Study I linked increased theta activity during negative encoding to better memory, while Studies II and III found that stress—especially noradrenaline—after strong reactivation impaired updating. Findings highlight the cortico-hippocampal network as a key but stress-sensitive system, relevant for understanding stress-related disorders and guiding interventions.