At the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) more than 1,300 scientists investigate how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors and search for new strategies to prevent people from developing cancer. They are developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully.
Jointly with partners from the university hospitals DKFZ contributes to the endeavor of transferring promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improving the chances of cancer patients.
The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) with its more than 3,000 employees is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany. More than 1,300 scientists at the DKFZ investigate how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors and search for new strategies to prevent people from developing cancer. They are developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ’s Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to all questions on cancer.
Jointly with partners from the university hospitals, the DKFZ operates the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg and Dresden, and the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center KiTZ in Heidelberg. In the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), one of the six German Centers for Health Research, the DKFZ maintains translational centers at seven university partner locations. NCT and DKTK sites combine excellent university medicine with the high-profile research of the DKFZ. They contribute to the endeavor of transferring promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improving the chances of cancer patients.
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
Within the UNCAN project DKFZ will contribute mainly to 1) explore ways in which existing research infrastructures, data platforms and digital tools and technologies can support cancer research; 2) identify gaps and roadblocks in the generation, availability, accessibility, and interoperability of research data sets relevant to future needs of cancer research, and 3) deliver a blueprint for establishing a European Federated Cancer Research Data Hub that ensures data interoperability and re-utilisation, while guaranteeing full protection of privacy, applying FAIR data principles, and fully contributing to the European data strategy.
Biographies of team members
Michael Boutros
Prof. Dr. Michael Boutros: WP Leading Coordinator.
Coordinator of the Functional and Structural Genomics Program, Head of Division Signaling and Functional Genomics, DKFZ.
Claudia Mayer
Dr. Claudia Mayer: Coordinator for International Cooperation, DKFZ.
She is a biologist and formerly advised and assisted the Chairman and Scientific Director of DKFZ and the president of the Helmholtz Association.
Susan Kentner
Dr. Susan Kentner: Head Grants Office, DKFZ.
Specialist on EU and international funding programs. Former Director of the Helmholtz Office in Brussels.
María Ángeles Tapia-Laliena
Dr. María Ángeles Tapia-Laliena: Scientific Project Manager, DKFZ.
She is biologist and performed different postdoctoral projects at the Danish Cancer Society, the IRB-Barcelona and the University of Heidelberg.