GIMM achieved an outstanding result in the Postdoctoral Junior Leader Fellowships 2026, with two fellowships awarded to Marta Lourenço (Isabel Gordo’s lab) and Hugo Belda (Moritz Treeck’s lab).

This highly competitive call received 463 eligible applications and granted only 20 fellowships in total (overall success rate 4.32%), giving GIMM a success rate of 22.2%. Marta investigates gene transfer in the gut and its impact on bacteriophage therapy (viruses that infect bacteria), while Hugo studies how parasites such as Plasmodium and Toxoplasma manipulate host cells, paving the way for new therapeutic strategies.

Each fellowship provides up to €320,100 over three years, strengthening GIMM as a center of excellence in biomedical research.