GSN Faculty members secure lucrative grants

New Collaborative Research Centre on Neurovascular Diseases

In November 2025, the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded funding for a new Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1744) focused on the Compartmentalized Cellular Networks in Neurovascular Diseases under the joint leadership of GSN faculty members Professor Martin Dichgans and Professor Arthur Liesz.

The new SFB brings together experts from neurobiology, immunology, glial and stem cell research, genetics, and data science to investigate how the brain’s compartmentalized cellular networks of vascular, immune, and glial cells work in health and disease and how disruptions to these networks contribute to conditions such as small vessel disease, amyloid deposition, ischemic stroke, and intracerebral hemorrhage.

Through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative approaches, the centre aims to uncover fundamental mechanisms underlying neurovascular disorders and pave the way for novel therapeutic strategies that specifically target disturbed cellular networks in the brain.

This major research initiative underscores LMU’s leading role in tackling complex medical challenges and advancing our understanding of diseases that affect millions worldwide.

ERC Consolidator Grants Awarded to GSN faculty members Sophia Stoecklein and Arthur Liesz

Two individual ERC Consolidator Grants by the European Research Council were awarded to radiologist and neuroscientist Professor Sophia Stoecklein and stroke expert Professor Arthur Liesz earlier this December. These grants provide up to €2 million over a five-year period to support outstanding scientific work.

Professor Stoecklein, a radiologist and neuroscientist at LMU Klinikum, will lead the CONNECT project (Cutting-Edge Neuroimaging for Functional Brain Network Evaluation in Cancer Patients), which aims to advance functional connectivity MRI and develop AI-supported methods to make hidden brain-tumor networks visible for earlier, more precise cancer diagnosis and personalized treatment strategies.
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Professor Liesz, head of the Stroke Immunology research group at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, will pursue the TRAINED project (The Role of Trained Immunity in Brain-Body Communication and Secondary Organ Dysfunction). His work investigates how stroke and heart attack-induced changes in the immune system’s memory contribute to chronic inflammation and secondary organ dysfunction, with the ultimate goal of identifying new therapeutic targets.