The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) with more than 3,000 employees is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany. At DKFZ, more than 1,300 scientists are investigating the mechanisms of cancer, identifying cancer risk factors, and trying to find strategies to prevent people from getting cancer. They are developing novel approaches to make tumor diagnosis more precise and treatment of cancer patients more successful.
DKFZ’s Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to all questions on cancer.
Jointly with partners from university hospitals, DKFZ operates the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg and Dresden, and the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center KiTZ in Heidelberg.
At the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), one of six German Health Research Centers (DZG), more than 20 academic research institutes and university hospitals at seven partner locations cooperate with DKFZ as the consortium’s core center.
NCT and DKTK combine excellent university medicine with the high-profile research of the DKFZ, thus transferring promising approaches from cancer research into clinical application and bringing about lasting improvements to the diagnosis and treatment for patients. DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
Role of institution in the project
At DKFZ, the Division of Radiology (WP2), Division of Medical Image Computing (WP5, WP6), Division of Federated Information Systems (WP5, WP4) and Division of Radiooncology/Radiobiology (WP5) are involved in EUCAIM. DKFZ will co-lead Work Package 2 Engagement and Liaison of Data Providers in close collaboration with HULAFE and contribute to several other work package tasks concerning the governance and implementation of the central hub, the data federation and interoperability framework as well as federated learning on the EUCAIM platform.
Prof. Dr. med. Dipl.-Phys. Heinz-Peter Schlemmer is Professor for Oncologic Radiology at the Medical Faculty at Heidelberg University, Director of the Division Radiology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and Member of the Directorate at the National Centre for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg (NCT). Following his academic studies in both physics and medicine, he specialized in the development and clinical application of imaging technologies in oncology. He started with basic research in nuclear magnetic resonance physics and biophysics, followed by research and clinical work at several national and international University hospitals and research institutes. His methodological focus is multimodal and multiparametric cross-sectional imaging, including MR imaging and spectroscopy at 1.5T up to ultra-high field 7.0T, whole-body MRI, dual-energy and spectral CT, and PET/MRI. Goal of his translational research is early detection of cancer, characterization and staging, assessment of metastatic disease, biopsy guidance as well as treatment planning and monitoring. One particular focus is on prostate cancer. He is active in several national and international societies for oncologic imaging as well as German guideline committees. He is author of more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and has a record of more than 500 invited lectures at national and international meetings.
Hanna Leisz is a research coordinator at the Division of Radiology at DKFZ. She holds an MBA in Education and Research Management with a focus on project management in public research institutions and public funding. Since 2010, Hanna has been working as a project manager and coordinator for university and non-university research institutions. For the past five years, she has been working in radiological research coordinating a number of national and international projects with a particular focus on oncologic imaging and AI development. Additionally, she is supporting the Division of Radiology’s involvement in the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK).
Dr. rer. nat. Tobias Kussel a cryptographer and computer scientist at the Division of Federated Information Systems at the German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg and the University Medical Centre Mannheim. He received his doctorate from the Technical University Darmstadt on interdisciplinary research questions at the intersection of statistical physics, cryptography and medical informatics. His research interests are privacy-preserving analyses, secure multi-party computation, graph systems, and the dynamics of complex systems. In his work, he builds secure IT infrastructure for federated research networks and develops novel cryptographic methods for secure joint computations.