Philipp Schommers receives Prize for European HIV Research

We are delighted to announce that Philipp has been awarded the Prize for European HIV Research (ANRS MIE Award for the Best Basic/Translational Paper on HIV) at the European AIDS Conference (EACS 2025) in Paris.

The prize honours his groundbreaking study “Dynamics and durability of HIV‑1 neutralization are determined by viral replication”, published in 2023 in Nature Medicine. In this work, Prof. Schommers and his team analysed samples from over 2,300 people living with HIV across Germany, Nepal, Tanzania and Cameroon, and followed rare “elite‑neutralisers” over several years. The findings demonstrated that the antigen load of the virus dictates both the magnitude and the longevity of broadly neutralising antibody (bNAb) responses. Importantly, the team estimated half‑lifetimes of naturally induced bNAbs in humans — ranging from roughly nine to seventeen years under low/no antigen load, and around four years after the start of antiretroviral therapy.

With this award, Prof. Schommers’ work is recognised for its outstanding contribution to bridging basic science and clinical application in HIV research. The Prize for European HIV Research is awarded biennially, is among the highest endowed prizes in the field, and was supported by the French National Research Agency for HIV, viral hepatitis and emerging infectious diseases (ANRS MIE) in 2025.

We congratulate Prof. Schommers on this well‑deserved recognition and honour his leadership in advancing our understanding of HIV immunology and designing the next generation of antibody‑based interventions.