26 Jun 2026
The Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft (MUG) has honoured two early-career researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at LMU Munich with its prestigious Doctoral Research Award for their outstanding doctoral theses.
© LMU
Presented annually, the awards recognize exceptional academic achievements by doctoral researchers at LMU. The two award-winning dissertations from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine make important contributions not only to veterinary medicine but also to biomedical research.
Dr Katharina Zwicklbauer: Advancing Coronavirus Research in Cats and Humans
Dr Katharina Zwicklbauer received the Doctoral Research Award for her dissertation, Clinical, Laboratory, Virological and Immunological Parameters in Cats with Feline Infectious Peritonitis During and After Antiviral Therapy.
Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a coronavirus-induced disease, was long considered incurable. In her dissertation, Dr Zwicklbauer demonstrated that the antiviral compound GS-441524 can achieve complete and long-lasting remission in cats with FIP without causing serious adverse effects. Her work has made a significant contribution to establishing an effective treatment and offers new hope for affected cats and their owners.
The impact of her research extends beyond veterinary medicine. In close collaboration with the Dr von Hauner Children's Hospital at LMU Munich, Dr Zwicklbauer investigated similarities between FIP and a severe inflammatory syndrome observed in children following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Her dissertation highlights the potential of the One Health approach and demonstrates the close links between veterinary and human medicine.
Dr Sebastian Thomas Kunte: New Insights into Brain Cell Metabolism
Dr Sebastian Thomas Kunte also received a Doctoral Research Award for his dissertation, Investigating the Relative Cellular Glucose Uptake of Microglial Cells in the Native Brain Environment.
As part of his doctoral research, Dr Kunte contributed to the development of single-cell radiotracing, an innovative technique for measuring glucose metabolism in individual brain cell types within the living brain. His work demonstrated that microglia—the immune cells of the brain—undergo profound metabolic changes when removed from their natural environment, meaning that their behaviour under laboratory conditions differs substantially from that observed in vivo.
These findings improve the interpretation of imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and provide an important foundation for research into neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. The award-winning dissertation further illustrates the important contribution of veterinary biomedical research to advancing our understanding of