This year, two of the dissertation prizes of Friedrich Schiller University Jena are awarded to doctoral researchers who did their theses at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (HKI): one to the biologist Qian Chen, one to the chemist Florian Kloss. Both PhD projects not only covered cutting-edge topics, the results were also published in renowned scientific journals. 

The infection biologist Qian Chen (Dept. Infection Biology) received the dissertation award of the Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy for her ground-breaking work elucidating the mechanisms of a severe kidney disease. Her discoveries in collaboration with physicians from Berlin and Erlangen allowed to develop a new therapy and to successfully treat young patients who suffered from the kidney disease. 

The chemist Florian Kloss (Dept. Biomolecular Chemistry) is honoured for this work on the active compound Closthioamid with the dissertation award of the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences. He is currently establishing a research group within the project consortium InfectControl 2020, continuing his research on novel natural products.