Two SFB-associated PhD alumni receive the Vienna BioCenter PhD Award 2025

November 10, 2025

Two PhD alumni, Irene Schwartz (Versteeg lab, Max Perutz Labs) and Víctor Sánchez de Medina Hernández (Dagdas lab, GMI), whose doctoral projects were embedded in SFB-funded research, have received the Vienna BioCenter PhD Award 2025. Their award-winning work contributed to the consortium’s overarching research focus on protein degradation: selective autophagy across evolution and controlled protein degradation in immune regulation.

The Vienna BioCenter PhD Award 2025 honors exceptional doctoral theses defended within the Vienna BioCenter PhD Program and recognizes scientific excellence across participating institutes. This year, two awardees carried out their PhD research in groups integral to our SFB consortium:

Victor Sanchez de Medina Hernandez completed his PhD in the Dagdas lab (GMI), where his thesis “Leveraging evolutionary diversity to discover new autophagy mechanisms in plants” focused on identifying and characterizing selective autophagy receptors in plants — including discovery of a conserved receptor (CESAR) important for protein aggregate degradation under stress conditions.

Read more in the GMI News here.

Irene Schwartz carried out her doctoral research in the Versteeg lab (Max Perutz Labs). Her work investigated how cells maintain immune balance through controlled proteasomal degradation, using CRISPR/Cas9 screening to identify E3 ligases that regulate stability of key immune modulators such as IRF1 and APOBEC3 enzymes. This research sheds light on regulated protein degradation mechanisms that interface with immune control.

Read more in the Max Perutz Labs News here.

We extend our warm congratulations to both awardees on this well-deserved recognition. The SFB consortium is proud to see its collaborative research environment reflected in the success of its early-career researchers and wishes them all the best for their future.

Irene Schwartz, Vienna BioCenter PhD Awardee 2025. (c) Max Perutz Labs