Max Kellner—a former PhD student in Josef Penninger’s lab at IMBA—has been awarded the Life Sciences PhD Award Austria 2025. Kellner was selected for the honor within the category “Applied Research” by the Austrian Association of Molecular Life Sciences and Biotechnology (ÖGMBT) for his PhD thesis “Preparing for Future Pandemics: Rapid Virus Identification in Resource-Limited Settings and Modeling Zoonotic Virus Infections in Natural Reservoir Species”.

The award-winning thesis focuses on studying how natural animal hosts and humans respond differently to highly dangerous zoonotic viruses of pandemic concern, such as Marburg virus and SARS-CoV-2. In his project, Kellner developed innovative bat-derived organoids to investigate why such viruses cause severe illness and even death in humans but can be carried by bats without affecting their health. Kellner’s research uncovered fundamental differences between bat and human innate immunity, showing that bats possess unique antiviral responses in their mucosa – the tissue that covers body cavities such as the nose, lung and gut – that protect them from viral infection. The findings were published in the journal Nature Immunology.

“I am honored to receive this award, and grateful to my colleagues, mentors, and collaborators who contributed invaluably to this project,” said Max Kellner. “This award recognizes the relevance and originality of our research and provides an opportunity to share our findings with the general audience, hopefully inspiring others to pursue similar research avenues with incredible potential to change how we understand disease and prepare for pandemics in the future.”

About Max Kellner 

Max Kellner obtained his master’s degree in molecular biology rom the University of Vienna. As a visiting master’s student, he joined the lab of Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (USA), where he worked on CRISPR/Cas13-based bacterial immunity proteins, focusing on their application in virus diagnostics (SHERLOCK) and targeted gene regulation in mammalian cells. Kellner began his doctoral training at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) and University of Cambridge, but returned to Vienna during the COVID pandemic. In 2020, he was recruited to the Vienna BioCenter and contributed crucially to the development of RT-LAMP-based rapid SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. Kellner and other scientists in the labs of Julius Brennecke’s (IMBA) and Andrea Pauli (IMP) joined forces with collaborators in Ghana to develop this tool further to provide an open-resource and open-access diagnostic option for remote locations with limited resources.

In 2021, Kellner joined Josef Penninger’s lab at IMBA as a student of the Vienna BioCenter PhD program. He developed bat-derived organoids to study how viruses originate in natural reservoirs. In 2023, his innovative approach in studying host-pathogen interactions in organoids was recognized with the Vienna BioCenter Out of the Box Award.

In April of 2025, Kellner joined the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research as a Junior Group Leader. His research group builds on the technologies Kellner developed to study how viral infections emerge at the interface between humans and animals, focusing on the molecular interactions between viruses and their hosts and how naturally evolved antiviral immune responses can block infection or disease.

About the Life Sciences PhD Awards Austria 

The Life Sciences PhD Awards Austria, organized by the ÖGMBT, recognize young researchers who have submitted an outstanding dissertation/PhD thesis in the field of life sciences and biotechnology. A jury consisting of renowned ÖGMBT scientists selects the winners. Each year, awardees present their research to both the scientific community and the wider public, celebrating excellence and innovation in basic and applied research. The ÖGMBT is Austria’s largest network for molecular life sciences and biotechnology, bringing together scientists, professionals, and institutions to promote research, collaboration, and innovation. 

Th Life Sciences PhD Awards in the category “Applied Research” are sponsored by Polymun Scientific.

About the Vienna BioCenter PhD Program

Max Kellner was a doctoral student of the Vienna BioCenter PhD Program. Are you interested in a world-class career in molecular biology? Find out more: https://training.vbc.ac.at/phd-program/