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[Music]

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Welcome everyone to another interview in

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medical physics here at the German

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Cancer Research Center. In this video we

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are going to meet Christina, she is a PhD

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student here at the DKFZ. She's

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waiting upstairs on the first floor,

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so, just follow me. 

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Hi Christina. Hi Marcel. Nice to meet you. 

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Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for your time. 

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Yes, of course. I've just

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introduced you that you are a PhD

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student but maybe you could tell us a

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bit more about your background?

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Yes, I'm still a PhD student. I just handed in

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my thesis and now I'm waiting for my

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defense and before I actually studied

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molecular biotechnology in Heidelberg

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for my bachelor and my master, then did

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my master thesis already at DKFZ

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in the medical engineering group and

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yeah now I'm still here and I'm hopefully

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here also for the next couple of years.

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Why did you decide to do your PhD at DKFZ

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and not somewhere else? 

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One really large point for me was

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that I already knew the group, like I

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knew the people, the work, the research

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and I really liked it, so that was one

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big factor. And the other one is that I

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mean DKFZ is kind of this

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interdisciplinary research area where

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you have a combination of biology,

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medicine, physics, engineering and

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that fits quite well with my education

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and my background and interest, so that

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was kind of me deciding for DKFZ. 

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What's your research topic about, just in

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a very short sentence. So my research

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topic is the development of a pancreas

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phantom for carbon ion radiotherapy and

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the main question there was like how

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does breathing motion affect the dose in

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the target and the organs at risk. 

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I think you don't have the Phantom here around. 

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But is it possible to enter your lab

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to see the phantom? Of course!

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Let's go to the lab. 

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[Music]

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Here we are in the lab.

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Let's have a look. 

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This is the pancreas phantom I

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developed in the last couple of years

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and a phantom in general is like a

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representation of the human body and

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most of the phantoms are geometric cubic

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water phantoms but we in our group

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would develop anthropomorphic phantoms

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so they represent the body even closer

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to the actual human, so if you have for

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example this pancreas phantom it's

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kind of representing the abdomen. You can

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for example apply breathing motion and

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you can kind of see that the belly is

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moving but also the organs inside. I can

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show you. So you can just open it

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quite easily

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and then you can see here that

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you have the pancreas which we use as

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target, then you have the duodenum, you

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have two kidneys and behind here, you

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also have the spine and if you want like

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it's not only breathing motion it's also

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bowel motion if you just like draw some

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air out you can see that the duodenum is

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actually moving.

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Very interesting.

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This is just developed for ion

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therapy, you can use it also for

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photons, protons and so on, but also

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like for newly developing

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radiotherapies like mini beam, Flash and

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so on. The idea here is that the organs

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kind of have not only the

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anthropomorphic shape but also MRI and

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CT contrast like humans and all of

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them are like 3D printed and according

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to the material and what kind of ion or

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in general radiotherapy you use

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you can adapt that. We have prepared here

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this very

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schematical scheme of this

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radiotherapy chain. Where would you

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locate your research? far away or

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very close to this radiotherapy

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workflow? I think phantoms in general

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are like perfectly fitting in this chain

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because you can start for example with

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imaging, you can do CT, you can do MRI

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with the phantom, then you can do your

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tumor localization to see where the tumor is,

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do the actual treatment plan and

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calculate it like after you segmented

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all the organs and then you can even

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put detectors inside each of the organs

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and then see what actual dose you get in

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the different organs during your

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treatment. So in various situations you

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can use the phantom but why do we need

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such a phantom.  Aren't simulations

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enough? Good question. I mean, a

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lot of people ask that. The thing is

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simulations are just in the computer and

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you just kind of need a real world

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validation of the things that the

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computer gives you and with the

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phantom this is actually possible. You

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don't harm the patients but still you

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can have like a real world example,

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close to humans where you verify like

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all your plans and all the

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simulations you're actually doing. 

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Thanks, Christina, for explaining us your very

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interesting research. Apart from

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research what was the most fascinating

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event during the last months or even

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years? I actually was last month

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at the at a Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

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where there were like over 30

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Nobel Laureate actually meeting with us

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about 500 young scientists to like tell

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their stories, show their research and I

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could even present my work so the

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phantom you saw. Some of the Nobel Laureate

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I actually also saw in this

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meeting and I think it was

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really fascinating to meet other young

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researchers and scientists and to

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exchange. I mean they were all from

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different fields so that was super

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interesting to also get like another

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view on the medical physics field

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actually and talking about medical

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physics. For others who might be

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interested to study this field what

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would be your personal advice to join

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field of medical physics and radiation

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therapy what would be your

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advice for someone who is unsure about

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their own career? Okay, I think you

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have to be like curious you have to like

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kind of this interdisciplinary field but

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if you do, it's kind of really nice to

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have like this variety of things you can

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actually do. I mean I built phantoms,

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other people do like MRI scans and

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develop new sequences there, so

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you can do so many things from medicine

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to physics, engineering and computer

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science and that is kind of really nice

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to have. Okay. Thanks Christina! We

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are at the end of this interview. Thanks

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for your time. It was a pleasure to meet

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you and thanks for watching. 

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[Music]