Awards Prof. Dr. Rohini Kuner wins prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
Neuropharmacologist Prof. Dr Rohini Kuner has been honoured with the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the award, the DFG pays tribute to Prof. Kuner’s ground-breaking studies on mechanisms underlying chronic pain. Her research aims to identify the causes in order to address them pharmacologically. Prof. Kuner is the Managing Director of the Institute of Pharmacology, which is based in the Medical Faculty Heidelberg.
Prof. Dr. Kuner had already addressed the topic of pain research during her doctoral studies in the United States. Her contributions to the mechanisms of pain signal transmission and pain transfer to the central nervous system form an important basis for identifying what triggers chronic pain and for developing new therapeutic methods. Unlike a lot of pain research worldwide, says the German Research Foundation, Prof. Kuner concentrates on systemic approaches and particularly highlights neuroplasticity – the modifiability of neuronal connections in the nervous system that underlie chronic pain. “With the assistance of experimental approaches such as neurogenetic and optogenetic techniques, or methods such as in-vivo imaging and 3D electron microscopy, she was able to define central neural pathways of pain transfer,” the German Research Foundation underlines. Most recently the scientist has been investigating mechanisms of neuropathic pain arising from the severing of nerves.
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize – the most important research award in Germany – has been awarded annually since 1986 by the German Research Foundation. Up to ten prizes can be awarded each year with prize money of 2.5 million euros each. The awards for the year 2024 go to three women and seven men, including Rohini Kuner and Jonas Grethlein. The purpose of the Leibniz Programme, established in 1985, is to honour outstanding scientists and scholars, to expand their research opportunities and facilitate the employment of particularly qualified early career researchers. The prizes will be presented on 13 March 2024 in Berlin.
