10 / 2025
On Friday, 31 October 2025, Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum was awarded the Langen Science Award, endowed with 15,000 euros, at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. The award was presented by Dr Georg Kippels, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health (Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, BMG). "With the Langen Science Award, we honour researchers whose work is groundbreaking for tomorrow´s medicine,"
emphasised Dr Kippels. "We are delighted to honour Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum, a scientist who has developed an innovative method for visualising key immunological processes in cancer. This could open up new avenues for the development of personalised therapies,"
added Professor Stefan Vieths, President of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines.
From left to right: Uwe Linder, Professor Stefan Vieths, Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum, Dr Georg Kippels, Professor Jan Werner, Professor Klaus Cichutek.
Source: Paul-Ehrlich-Institut
The six-member award board of trustees, chaired by the former president of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Professor Klaus Cichutek, had selected four applications from amongst those submitted for the Langen Science Award and invited the researchers to a public lecture event at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut in August 2025. The other members of the board of trustees are Professor Stefan Vieths, President of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Professor Jan Werner, Mayor of the City of Langen, Uwe Linder, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Langen (Langen Public Utility Company), Professor Hansjörg Schild, Director of the Institute of Immunology at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Professor Torsten Tonn, Medical Managing Director of the German Red Cross Blood Donation Service Baden-Wuerttemberg - Hesse and University Professor of Transfusion Medicine and Molecular Haematology at the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main.
In the final round of the award ceremony, Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum convinced the jury with his presentation "Time-resolved single-cell transcriptomics: Deciphering immune responses in tumours," thereby prevailing over the other nominated applicants. His research at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg, where he uses a state-of-the-art technique called single-cell transcriptomics to visualise dynamic immune responses in the tumour microenvironment, earned him the award. This work highlights the international importance of this innovative approach to cancer immunology and the development of personalised therapies.
Since 1993, the Langen Science Award has been one of the most prestigious awards for biomedical research in Germany and is highly regarded throughout the country. In close partnership, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut and the city of Langen award the prize, endowed with 15,000 euros, every two years, thereby putting the spotlight on outstanding research projects in the field of human health.
The evening event following the award ceremony is traditionally hosted by Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) at its premises, with the organisation´s kind support.
Professor Jan Werner, Mayor of the City of Langen, emphasised: "With the Langen Science Award, we are highlighting the social importance of scientific innovation and specifically promoting progress in biomedicine."
From the outset, Stadtwerke Langen has been a strong partner, demonstrating how vibrant social responsibility can be at the municipal level. Managing Director Uwe Linder emphasised: "For us at Stadtwerke Langen, supporting science and education is a central part of our tradition. We want to do good for social, cultural, and economic coexistence – sponsoring the science award is one of our contributions to the common good."
Based in Langen for around 30 years, the renowned Paul-Ehrlich-Institut stands for the highest standards of quality, safety, and efficacy in vaccines and biomedicines. As a federal institute, it supports innovative research from the initial idea to its application, ensuring that therapeutic breakthroughs safely reach patients.
To ensure the sustainable financing of the science award, the non-profit Association for the Promotion of the Langen Science Award was founded in 2003 and has since received broad support from the public.
Biomedical research thrives on curiosity and enthusiasm – researchers themselves are the most convincing advocates of how exciting science can be. This is why this year's award winner, Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum, will personally present his groundbreaking research findings at an event at Gymnasium Langen. "I am convinced that direct dialogue is the best way to convey the fascination of research. Young people should experience how important and effective innovations are for our health,"
said Professor Stefan Vieths, President of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut.
Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum addresses fundamental questions at the interface of neuroscience, immunology, and cancer research. During his doctoral studies in Zurich, he developed new methods to make the entire brain transparent and visualise disease processes such as Alzheimer's in three-dimensional images. This allowed him to demonstrate that drugs do not have a uniform effect throughout the brain, but rather have very different effects in different regions. He also discovered a new class of substances that can significantly slow the progression of Alzheimer's plaques in the brain. Parts of this work resulted in a patent that was licensed by an international company.
During his time at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Kirschenbaum turned his attention to the immune system. He succeeded in tracking the behaviour of immune cells in the body over time at the single-cell level. This newly developed method not only reveals how immune cells fight disease, but also how they influence tumor growth in certain situations. Thanks to this work, the immune system can be studied more precisely in future, including with a view to developing tailored immunotherapies against cancer.
Since 2025, Dr Kirschenbaum has been establishing his own research group at the DKFZ in Heidelberg. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the immune system and cancer cells and to develop new approaches for treating patients.
From 2005 to 2011, Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum studied human medicine at Semmelweis University in Budapest, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2011. He then began his specialist training in neurology (2011–2013) at the University Hospital of Tübingen, combined with clinical and scientific work at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research.
From 2013, he continued his training as a resident at the Institute of Neuropathology at the University Hospital of Zurich, where he earned his medical doctorate in 2017 and received his specialist certification in diagnostic neuropathology in 2019. At the same time, he completed the doctoral program (MD PhD) at the University of Zurich between 2014 and 2019. His research work at the Institute of Neuropathology focused on new methods of tissue preparation and 3D imaging and led to his doctorate in 2019.
From 2019 onwards, Dr Kirschenbaum worked as a specialist in neuropathology at the University Hospital of Zurich, where he specialised in the diagnosis of neurosurgical biopsies, muscular and cutaneous samples, and brain autopsies.
His subsequent postdoctoral research period from 2020 to 2024 took him to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (Israel), where he developed new methods for single-cell RNA analysis of immune cells in vivo in the Department of Systems Immunology.
Since 2025, he has been junior group leader of the Immunodynamics and Cancer research group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
Updated: 31.10.2025
