DKTK Tübingen: Hans-Georg Rammensee receives 2013 German Cancer Aid Award
Joint press release of the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research and Tübingen University Hospital
German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe) presents its annual award to Professor Hans-Georg Rammensee, a collaborator in the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research, for research in the area of cancer immunotherapy.
Professor Hans-Georg Rammensee
© dkfz.de
This year's German Cancer Aid Award goes to a scientist from the Tübingen partner site of the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK): Professor Hans-Georg Rammensee. A researcher at the Interfaculty Institute for Cell Biology at Tübingen University, Rammensee is being honored for work on antigen presentation and T-cell recognition that has led to fundamental discoveries about the way the immune system recognizes tumors.
“I am very pleased about this award,” says Rammensee, “because it will be very helpful as we advance further along a path which is often very laborious.” The aim of the biologist’s work is to develop individualized vaccines that can activate a person's own immune system against a tumor. Vaccines against renal cancer and prostate cancer, developed at the university spin-offs immatics and CureVac, have already been successfully applied in clinical trials. In 2013, Rammensee was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for his project “MUTAEDITING,” in which he plans to take a closer look at the interactions between genetic changes (mutations that cancer cells undergo during the course of a disease) and the responses of the human immune system.
Rammensee is a member of the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) at Tübingen University, where the German Cancer Research Center has established a DKTK partnering site. He is joint coordinator of the DKTK research program on “Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy,” one of DKTK’s seven research programs, with Professor Dirk Schadendorf (of the partnering site in Essen/Düsseldorf).
“We are proud that Hans-Georg Rammensee, a DKTK scientist,has received this high distinction,” said Professor Otmar Wiestler, Chairman of the Management Board of DKFZ and chief coordinator of the DKTK. “Rammensee's research is an excellent example of the translation of results from basic research into clinical applications. This is exactly what the German cancer consortium aims to do.”
The German Cancer Aid Award is an important distinction in oncology. German Cancer Aid presents this award to emphasize the high relevance of cancer research and to recognize the commitment of individuals who are making substantial contributions toward improving the care of cancer patients.
The award will be presented on February 4, 2014, at 4 pm in Bonn.
In the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) joins up with university hospitals all over Germany. Assembled around a core at the DKFZ in Heidelberg, the consortium unites twenty high-ranked institutes from seven partner sites: Berlin, Dresden, Essen/Dusseldorf, Frankfurt/Mainz, Freiburg, Munich and Tubingen, all specialized in research and treatment focused on oncological diseases. The DKTK was founded to promote translational research, bringing together scientists, physicians and associates to work jointly toward the main goal of enhancing the translation of research from bench to bedside. New approaches in prevention, diagnostics and treatment will be applied to cancer in common translational centers at all partner sites. Patients will be recruited at all partner sites for innovative studies to be carried out by the consortium as a whole. All the data from this work will be collected in a universal system. The harmonization of techniques and methods used in laboratories will ensure identical standards for all researchers and physicians in the consortium. A joint infrastructure will make them available for joint research. With the school of oncology, the consortium is additionally dedicating itself to the education of new physicians and scientists. Talented young people will be trained in cancer medicine and translational cancer research in a common effort involving all members. The German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research is a joint initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the participating German states, German Cancer Aid and the German Cancer Research Center. It is one of the six German Centers for Health Research (DZG).
Dr. Stefanie Seltmann
Head of Press and Public Relations
German Cancer Research Center
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
D-69120 Heidelberg
T: +49 6221 42 2854
F: +49 6221 42 2968
presse@dkfz.de
Sonja Klein
German Cancer Research Center
Press and Public Relations
German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
D-69120 Heidelberg
Phone: +49 6221 42 2254
Email: sonja.klein@dkfz
