Doctoral Prize of the Friends of the MHH goes to Dr Bibiana Costa

Dr Bibiana Costa, postdoctoral scientist at the Institute for Experimental Infection Research at TWINCORE, received one of this year's doctoral prizes from the Friends of the MHH last Friday. The Friends of the Medical School honoured her dissertation entitled ‘Delineation of pro- and anti-viral responses of cytmegalovirus-exposed human monocyte-derived dendritic cells’, in which she was able to clarify, among other things, which mechanisms the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) uses to survive for life in the bodies of infected people. Costa recently published these findings together with her doctoral supervisor Prof Ulrich Kalinke, Director of the Institute for Experimental Infection Research and Head of TWINCORE, in the renowned journal Nature Communications. 

In his laudatory speech, Kalinke emphasised the perseverance and meticulousness with which Costa analysed her laboratory data. ‘Her impressive motivation and almost boundless energy helped Bibiana to master this extremely challenging task with flying colours,’ said Kalinke. Bibiana Costa is proud of the award: ‘I feel very honoured to have received the doctoral prize and am delighted that my research work has been recognised in this way.

Photo: ©Thomas Damm