(Vienna, 25 June 2026) Anna Lopatina from the Medical University of Vienna is one of the recipients of this year’s FWF-ASTRA Prizes. The grants, each worth around one million euros, support emerging scientists on their path to the forefront of their research fields. Lopatina will carry out her five-year research project at the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology at MedUni Vienna.
Through the FWF-ASTRA Awards, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is supporting 18 advanced postdocs in Austria this year. The FWF is providing a total of 22 million euros for this purpose. The award winners prevailed in a highly competitive selection process and during a hearing before an international jury. Eleven of the 18 awards have gone to women. The funded projects span various fields of basic research – from natural sciences and engineering, through biology and medicine, to the humanities and social sciences.
Deciphering immune evasion strategies
In her ASTRA project, Anna Lopatina is investigating how viruses overcome bacterial immune systems. Bacteria possess surprisingly complex defence mechanisms that protect them from viral infections. Nevertheless, viruses remain extremely successful at infecting bacterial hosts. Whilst hundreds of bacterial defence systems have been discovered in recent years, the viral proteins that counteract these systems have only recently come under increased scrutiny in research.
Lopatina is investigating how viruses combine multiple strategies to circumvent bacterial defence mechanisms and regulate these over time. The project aims to contribute to a better understanding of one of nature’s oldest evolutionary conflicts: the battle between bacteria and viruses.
Possible approaches to combating antibiotic-resistant infections
Beyond basic research, the project could also open up new avenues for therapeutic applications. The aim is to identify design principles for the development of viruses that can be deployed specifically against bacteria. In the long term, such approaches could create new possibilities for tackling antibiotic-resistant infections.
The FWF awards the ASTRA Prizes to researchers who demonstrate innovative project ideas and potential for international recognition. In the second round of the call for proposals, submissions from 170 scientists were assessed.
About
Anna Lopatina received her PhD from the Institute of Gene Biology in Moscow, Russia, where she was awarded several competitive research fellowships, including support for two scientific expeditions to Antarctica. She subsequently joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, as a postdoctoral researcher and received a Senior Postdoctoral Award. She then moved to the University of Vienna, Austria, where she held both a Franziska Seidl Fellowship and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her research focuses on bacteria–virus interactions, particularly bacterial immune systems and the viral proteins that counteract them. She has contributed to the discovery and characterization of bacterial defense systems and viral anti-defense mechanisms, helping to advance our understanding of the molecular principles that govern microbial host–virus interactions.