Dr. Elena Muscolino ©private
June 16, 2020: Dr. Elena Muscolino receives DZIF Doctoral Prize
Tuesday, 16. June 2020The Board of Directors of the German Society for Infectiology (Deutschen Gesellschaft für Infektiologie e.V., DGI) has selected HPI researcher Dr. Elena Muscolino as one of three winners of the “DZIF Doktorandenpreis 2020”.
Elena Muscolino completed her doctorate summa cum laude in March 2020 in the HPI department "Virus-Host Interaction", headed by Prof. Wolfram Brune. Since then she has been working as postdoctoral fellow at the HPI.
During her PhD thesis she discovered a new principle of viral immune defense. Using the murine cytomegalovirus, she was able to show that herpes viruses can specifically induce the aggregation of important signal molecules and their degradation by selective autophagy in order to block innate antiviral reactions. The results of this study were published in December 2019 in the journal "Nature Microbiology".
Together with the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the DGI announces three doctoral student awards each year, each worth 500 euros. Applications are open to persons who have completed their PhD thesis in an infectious disease field in the previous year and have published their results in a peer-reviewed publication.
The HPI congratulates Elena Muscolino on this success!