Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators 2025 goes to Varun Venkataramani, Germany
This year, the Hamburg based life sicences company Eppendorf SE is awarding its prestigious research prize for the 30th time. The independent jury chaired by Prof. Laura Machesky, Cambridge, UK, selected Dr. Varun Venkataramani, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany as the winner of the
Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators 2025.
Varun Venkataramani receives the 20,000 Euro award for his research on how synaptic neuron-tumour networks can drive brain tumour progression.
The jury acknowledged the importance of the emerging field of neurooncology and Dr Venkataramani’s role in unravelling how neurons and tumours interact and the translational potential of this work.
Varun Venkataramani: „ I am deeply honored and grateful to receive the 2025 Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators. This recognition reflects the dedication and innovative spirit of my entire research team, whose tireless efforts have made our discoveries possible. I extend my sincere
thanks to my mentors, collaborators, and family for their unwavering support throughout this journey.”
The award acknowledges the important contributions to understanding the complex interplay between neurons and cancer cells in brain tumors,
revealing how cancer cells form synapses with neurons and exploit neuronal mechanisms for tumor growth and invasion. These findings are establishing cancer neuroscience as a new field at the intersection of neuroscience and oncology, which will potentially lead to neuroscience-instructed treatment strategies for patients with brain tumors, for whom current therapeutic options remain limited.
In addition to the winner of the Eppendorf Award 2025, two finalists were honored.
Fena Ochs, Group Leader at the Biotech research & Innovation Centre at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark is honored for her contribution to our
understanding of how cohesin mediates sister chromatid cohesion. The jury panel was impressed by Dr Ochs’ innovative and mechanistic studies that
helped to resolve how human cohesin works as a monomer to bind sister chromatids together and her single molecule studies of 3D chromatin. The
jury acknowledged the relevance of her studies to age-related infertility and to our understanding of chromatin organization.
Juliette Fedry, Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK, is honored for her use of innovative techniques to reveal how cellular stress controls protein translation. The jury panel was impressed with her FIB CryoET work, which is revealing how proteins are translated in healthy and diseased tissues at unprecedented resolution and in a physiologically relevant setting.
The Award Ceremony took place on July 3, 2025 at the Advanced Training Center of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg,
Germany.
About the Eppendorf Group
Eppendorf is an international leader in the life science industry, developing, producing and distributing equipment, consumables and services that are used in laboratories around the world. The product portfolio of the divisions Liquid Handling, Consumables, Separation & Instrumentation and Bioprocess includes pipettes, pipette tips, centrifuges, mixers, ULT freezers and bioreactors for cell and gene research.
Furthermore, Eppendorf offers a wide range of high-quality consumables. Eppendorf Group reported a total sales figure of 1.08 billion euros for the financial year 2023 while their research and development (R&D) investments amounted to 69 million euros.Eppendorf products are used in academic and industrial research laboratories, for example in pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical and food companies. Other fields of application for Eppendorf products include clinical and environmental analytical laboratories, forensics and industrial laboratories for process analysis, production and quality assurance.
Eppendorf Group is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, since 1945 and has production facilities and R&D sites in Europe, Asia and North America. The Group’s subsidiaries are spread across 33 countries. Today, the Group has more than 5,000 employees around the world. In their everyday work, all of these employees have one and the same mission, proclaimed by the company’s founder: Improving human living conditions.
Media contact:
Tanja Musiol
Eppendorf SE
Barkhausenweg 1
22339 Hamburg
Phone: +49 (40) 692106222
Email: musiol.t@eppendorf.de