Dear SFB1315 Members and Colleagues,

we are very pleased to announce winners of the Brenda Milner Award 2025. The CRC1315 Steering Committee voted in favor of awarding two candidates with a monetary award of 7.500 EUR each, to support their career development, including support for  travel related to their SFB1315 collaborations.

Dr. Lisa Scheunemann  is awarded the Brenda Milner Award 2025 for outstanding scientific and academic achievements and impactful contributions. Dr. Scheunemann is an Emmy Noether Research Fellow and has served as an associated Principal Investigator in the CRC1315 since 2022—both of which highlight her exceptional leadership and dedication to advancing scientific knowledge, as well as mentoring early career scientists in the consortium. Since earning her PhD, Dr. Scheunemann has consistently demonstrated research excellence, evidenced by an impressive publication record in high-impact journals. Notably, she recently served as the first author on a groundbreaking paper published in Nature. This publication investigates how neural networks balance the trade-off between risk and reward, using male Drosophila as a model. The study, conducted in collaboration with CRC subproject A07 (AG Owald), uncovers a dopamine-mediated filtering mechanism that modulates threat perception during courtship, and shows how dopamine signaling biases sensory perception to prioritize a proximal goal. This work not only provides profound insights into the neural mechanisms governing behavior but also opens avenues for deeper understanding of how processes such as dopamine-mediated filtering influence memory gating and consolidation. Beyond her research achievements, Dr. Scheunemann is deeply committed to promoting diversity and supporting young scientists. In 2024, Lisa Scheunemann was one of two associate PIs who profoundly supported networking and co-moderated sessions of the CRC’s annual Women’s Networking Retreat, together with early career scientists in the CRC. Further, Dr. Scheuenemann actively participates in outreach initiatives, such as annual “Girls’ Day” events, which encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM, and in the DFG Emmy Noether Networking Event organized by BIH/Charité. She also regularly supervises school internships to inspire early interest in academic research. All of these efforts underscore her enduring dedication to fostering the next generation of scientific talent and creating an inclusive and supportive scientific community and environment. In summary, Dr. Lisa Scheunemann embodies the qualities celebrated by the Brenda Milner Award: groundbreaking research, a commitment to mentorship, and unwavering dedication to the advancement of women in science. See paper in Nature.

Dr. Scheunemann is currently an associated PI and affliated with A08 (AG Sigrist).

Prof. Dr. Seija Lehnardt  is awarded the Brenda Milner Award 2025 for enduring and remarkable contributions to science, combining scientific excellence with a range of interests and a deep commitment to fostering interdisciplinary discourse and integrating science with society. After completing  experimental work in molecular biology, Dr. Lehnardt pursued medical studies in Berlin, including a Scientific (Postdoc) Fellowship from 2001-2003 at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. In 2002, she defended her dissertation at the Charité in Berlin with summa cum laude at the age of 24, and after passing the third state examination in human medicine in 2004, she established her own successful research group alongside her clinical work and habilitated at the age of 31 as one of the youngest candidates in the field of neurology at Charité University Medicine. In 2013, she passed the board examination in neurology. While a member of NeuroCure from 2009 to 2017, Dr. Lehnardt took up one of the first junior professorships in Molecular Medicine at the Charité and has held a W2 professorship in Neurodegeneration since 2015. Seija Lehnardt’s research follows a strongly translational approach, focuses on the role of immunological processes in neurodegenerative diseases and forms an interface between questions of immunology, developmental biology, and neurology. Notably, her current work highlights the role of microRNAs in neurodegenerative processes in the CNS. In 2012, Dr. Lehnardt’s research group was the first to demonstrate that microRNAs can act not only as gene regulators but also as signaling molecules for membrane receptors. Many of her publications have been published in Nat Neurosci, PNAS, J Neurosci, Mol Degener, among others. In addition to her primarily scientific and teaching activities, she is actively involved in various committees within the faculty and serves intensively as a commission member for several international graduate programs and research colleges. In these roles, she not only supervises medical students, but also students from fields such as biology, chemistry, biotechnology, etc. Furthermore, Dr. Lehnardt has been a trusted advisor for the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) for over 10 years. In this capacity, she provides ongoing support and guidance to students and doctoral candidates from various disciplines, such as law, philosophy, art history, and physics, regarding their career development and planning. This interdisciplinary approach is further fostered through group work with the scholarship holders led by Dr. Lehnardt, as well as her involvement in selection and renewal procedures with colleagues from a wide range of disciplines within the foundation. See papers in Nature and JCI.

Dr. Lehnardt is currently an associated PI and affliated with A01/A02 (AG Schmitz).

Please join us in congratulating Lisa Scheunemann and Seija Lehnardt!

Best regards,

Matthew Larkum
SFB1315 Speaker

Poster