14 Aug 2026
GSN alumna Dr. Angelika Dannert and GSN faculty member Prof. Dr. Dominik Paquet have been awarded the 2026 Rolf Becker Prize for research developing human stem-cell-based models of neurological disease.
Their work addresses two major challenges in neuroscience: understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration and creating more human-relevant models of disorders affecting the brain’s blood vessels.
The Rolf Becker Prize is awarded annually by the LMU Faculty of Medicine and the Rufzeichen Gesundheit! Foundation for outstanding original research in experimental or clinical medicine conducted at LMU. The prize has a total endowment of €50,000. In 2026, Paquet was recognized for a study of the human blood–brain barrier, while Dannert and Paquet were jointly recognized for their work on a human model of tauopathies.
For the GSN community, the 2026 Rolf Becker Prize is also a recognition of the continuity between doctoral training and independent research: Angelika Dannert’s award-winning work grew out of her GSN PhD research in the Paquet Lab, while Dominik Paquet continues to contribute to the GSN as a faculty member.
Congratulations to Angelika Dannert and Dominik Paquet on this well-deserved recognition of their innovative contributions to human disease modelling and systems neuroscience.