Stuttgart, Germany – the debilitating neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) affects millions worldwide, and despite advances in treatment, the progressive form remains a significant challenge for researchers and patients. On December 12, 2025, the Roman, Marga and Mareille Sobek Foundation recognized two leading scientists for their pivotal contributions to understanding the complex interplay between the immune system and the brain in MS. The prestigious Sobek Research Prize and Young Researcher award-totaling €115,000-were presented at a ceremony acknowledging breakthroughs that promise more targeted and effective therapies for this often-debilitating condition.
Stuttgart, Germany – On December 12, 2025, the Roman, Marga and Mareille Sobek Foundation honored two scientists for their groundbreaking work illuminating the role of misdirected immune cells in multiple sclerosis (MS). Their research offers new hope for therapies, particularly for the progressive form of MS, which remains challenging to treat despite significant advances in the field.
The 2025 Sobek Research Prize, worth €100,000, was awarded to French neuroimmunologist Prof. Dr. Dr. Roland Liblau of Toulouse. The Sobek Prize is considered the most highly endowed award for basic MS research in Europe and North America, and potentially worldwide. The Sobek Young Researcher Award, valued at €15,000, went to German researcher Dr. Sarah Mundt, based in Zurich.
The awards ceremony, held under the patronage of the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, recognized outstanding research that deepens understanding of MS and opens new avenues for treatment, in collaboration with AMSEL, Aktion Multiple Sklerose Erkrankter, Landesverband der DMSG in Baden-Württemberg e.V., and the German Multiple Sclerosis Society (DMSG).
How Misdirected T-Cells Attack the Brain
Prof. Dr. Dr. Roland Liblau received the 2025 Sobek Research Prize for his scientific contributions to autoreactive T-lymphocytes and their fundamental role in MS and other neurological autoimmune diseases. Professor Liblau is a leading international physician-scientist in the field of neuroimmunology. He studied medicine in Paris, completed his neurological residency there, and received additional training in immunology at the Pasteur Institute. From 1991 to 1994, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University in California before establishing his own neuroimmunology working group at the prestigious Hôpital de la Salpêtrière in Paris. Since 2002, Liblau has been a professor of clinical immunology in Toulouse, where he leads one of Europe’s leading neuroimmunology laboratories. Since 2021, he has headed a research team at the Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (INFINITY).
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system where the body’s own immune defenses, normally protecting against pathogens, mistakenly attack healthy tissue. Professor Liblau’s research focuses on a specific group of immune cells: autoreactive T-lymphocytes, particularly CD8+ T-cells, also known as T-killer cells. These cells typically patrol the body, eliminating infected cells. However, in MS, they target healthy structures, including the myelin sheaths – the protective insulation around nerve fibers. Professor Liblau was among the first to demonstrate that both CD4+ “helper” T-cells and CD8+ cells play a significant role in inflammation and tissue damage in the central nervous system (CNS), specifically triggering and sustaining a “smoldering” inflammation in the brain.
This type of inflammation is primarily responsible for the slow, progressive form of MS, independent of relapses, while most current MS therapies primarily target acute exacerbations. This means that even when activated immune cells are no longer detectable in the blood of a person with MS, and MRI scans show no active inflammation, small groups of “primed” cells can remain settled in the brain and spinal cord. These tissue-resident cells are difficult to reach with conventional therapies and contribute to ongoing inflammation and nerve damage despite optimal treatment.
Professor Liblau’s work has shown that these tissue-resident T-cells damage or destroy brain cells, cooperating with other tissue-resident CD4+ T cells and immune cells, including B-cells. These tissue-resident “memory cells” are likely responsible for not only myelin destruction but also damage to axons and nerve cells themselves. The research findings have been published in leading journals and have garnered significant attention worldwide, offering concrete targets for future therapies aimed at these tissue-resident T-cells and their activation. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for developing more effective treatments for MS and improving the lives of those affected.
“As director of a large interdisciplinary research center, Professor Liblau has taken on a Herculean task,” said Prof. Dr. Reinhard Hohlfeld, a member of the Sobek Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, during the award presentation. “His scientific research has always looked beyond the boundaries of MS. This broadened perspective has enabled promising new approaches to the therapy of MS.”
How Immune Cells and Messengers Protect or Harm Nerves
The 2025 Sobek Young Researcher Award recognized Dr. Sarah Mundt for her research into the diverse roles of phagocytic cells and neuroimmune interactions in the central nervous system, which could help develop more targeted MS therapies. Dr. Mundt is a research group leader at the Neurological Clinic at the University Hospital Zurich. After earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Life Sciences at the University of Konstanz, she received her doctorate in immunology with summa cum laude. Her work on the role of the immunoproteasome in inflammatory reactions in the central nervous system, known as neuroinflammation, has been widely cited.
Dr. Mundt’s research primarily addresses how immune cells “communicate” with the brain and why this communication becomes disrupted in MS. In a widely recognized study, she demonstrated that dendritic cells – a type of “scout” for the immune system – can take up myelin components in the meninges and present them to the immune system. This allows misdirected T-cells to penetrate the otherwise well-protected brain tissue and trigger inflammation.
In more recent work, Dr. Mundt has focused on signaling molecules and phagocytic cells that can both protect and harm nerve tissue. A 2023 study showed that the pro-inflammatory messenger molecule, cytokine Interleukin-12, can have an unexpected protective function in the brain, suggesting that drugs blocking IL-12 may not be as effective as hoped. In an experimental model of MS, she and her team demonstrated that monocytes migrating from the blood and their “phagocytic” descendants are the main source of harmful oxygen radicals – and not, as previously assumed, the resident microglia cells in the brain.
Mundt and her team are working to understand which immune cells in the brain are “friends” and which are “foes.” Their findings could help develop more targeted therapies. Instead of broadly suppressing the immune system, future treatments could selectively block specific “trigger” cells or signaling pathways while simultaneously enhancing protective reactions. “Dr. Mundt is an inspiring role model for young neuroimmunologists,” emphasized Prof. Dr. Klaus V. Toyka, Chairman of the Sobek Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.
