October 29, 2025

Three FMI researchers awarded coveted SNSF Ambizione Grants

Three FMI researchers — Nanci Winke, Arnau Ramos Prats, and Lukas Anneser — have been awarded a prestigious Ambizione Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Their work spans from uncovering how emotions guide behavior, to understanding how the brain responds to anxiety treatments, to exploring how brain states influence learning and memory.

Out of hundreds of applications submitted nationwide, this year’s selected fellows are among 92 researchers whose projects were chosen for their scientific excellence and potential impact. Each grant, valued at nearly one million Swiss francs, supports early-career scientists in establishing independent research projects.

Nanci Winke is originally from Madeira, Portugal, and holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Bordeaux. In early 2024, she joined the FMI as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Andreas Lüthi, where she studies a part of the brain called the basolateral amygdala — a key area involved in processing emotions and making decisions. Using advanced techniques, she investigates how the activity of a specific group of excitatory neurons in the basolateral amygdala drives motivated behavior. “The Ambizione grant will give me the opportunity to explore how emotions shape our actions and to better understand the choices we make every day, from small habits to life-changing decisions,” says Winke, who was also awarded a SNSF's Postdoctoral Fellowship.

 

Arnau Ramos Prats was born in Barcelona, Spain, and holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. In August 2023, he joined the FMI as a postdoctoral researcher in the Lüthi lab. His work focuses on how the brain reacts to classic and new anxiolytics — drugs that reduce anxiety. To do this, he uses cutting-edge methods that let him track how groups of brain cells communicate and how their activity changes when different medications are applied. Understanding these brain responses could help pave the way for more effective treatments for stress-related conditions such as anxiety and depression. “I am excited to be able to delve into the neuronal mechanisms of anxiety and to study how commonly used anti-anxiety medications influence brain function,” he says.

 

Lukas Anneser is from Bavaria, Germany, and earned his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. In 2021, he joined the Friedrich group as a postdoctoral researcher. He studies how different modulatory molecules work together to affect spatial learning and memory in adult zebrafish — work that could helps us understand how distinct brain states can make it easier or harder to learn and remember information. “The Ambizione grant will support my work to uncover how the mix of hundreds of small molecules that regulate the brain enables the remarkable flexibility of our thinking and learning,” he says.