Professional Career

Head of Department of Experimental Surgery and Cancer Metastasis at the Mannheim Medical Faculty of University of Heidelberg, Germany, Vice Director of the Centre for Biomedicine and Medical Technology (CBTM), Mannheim Medical Faculty, Ruprecht-Karls- University of Heidelberg.

• She received her MD and Dr. med. (summa cum laude) at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich in 1995/1996,
• PhD (in molecular biology) at the University of Houston-MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1999.
• In 2017, she became elected as a Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (EACS).

Scientific focus

• As a board-certified surgeon and molecular biologist, she sees her mission in bridging basic research and the treatment of cancer patients as a dedicated translational researcher. Her major research interests include molecular determinants defining metastasis, microRNAs in metastasis, molecular determinants of response to novel therapeutics, metastasis prevention, translational metastasis research, and molecular staging of cancer.
• Her many well-received publications and research activities (her most cited original article currently having about 3000 citations) have received 23 scientific awards, including the Research Award of the Alfried-Krupp-von- Bohlen-und-Halbach-Foundation (one of the highest (1 million Euro), most prestigious and competitive research awards in Germany), the Langenbeck and Sauerbruch Research Award, the Young Investigator Award of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and the Research Award of the Ingrid zu Solms-Foundation, for which she currently also serves as the Chair of the Fellowship of the Awardees.
• She is active member of, for example, the AACR (also serving as a member of the AACR Surgical Oncology Task Force and Program Committee for the AACR Annual Meeting 2017), ASCO, and EACR (serving as Council Member and Ambassador representing Germany there), founder of the International Meeting series on “Molecular Staging of Cancer”, Member of the EORTC Advisory Board for Translational Research, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cancer, amongst other editorial appointments.