Shining a Spotlight on Childhood Dementia: New Clinician Scientist Professorship for Rare Diseases

Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, 27 February 2025 – Dr Angela Schulz, senior physician at the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), was awarded the Clinician Scientist Professorship for Rare Diseases at the beginning of the year. The aim is to advance new therapies for paediatric dementia and improve patient care.

Prof. Hans Hauner - TUM Emeritus of Excellence

Prof. Dr. Hans Hauner, Direktor des Else Kröner Fresenius Zentrums für Ernährungsmedizin, wurde von der Technischen Universität München als TUM Emeritus of Excellence ausgezeichnet – eine Anerkennung für ausgewählte Wissenschaftler, die sich in herausragender Weise durch wissenschaftliche Leistung und ihr Engagement für die Universität hervorgetan haben. Prof. Hauner hat die Ernährungsmedizin an der TUM begründet, mehr als zwei Dekaden nachhaltig geprägt und bleibt der Hochschule auch in Zukunft als Senior Professor und Berater verbunden.

Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professuren 2025 (only available in German)

Obschon es mittlerweile an vielen Orten Programme gibt, die dem Nachwuchs eine solche Ausbildung während der Facharztweiterbildung bieten, bleibt die Attraktivität für den Berufsweg als Clinician Scientist beschränkt, weil geeignete Anschlusspositionen nach Ablauf der Clinician-Scientist-Programme fehlen.

Als einen Lösungsansatz schreibt die Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung als Modell jährlich drei

Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professuren

Four new Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professorships facilitate highest-caliber medicine in cases of cancerous, kidney and cardiometabolic diseases

Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, February 6, 2025 – In pursuit of continuously improving application-related and patient-oriented medical research in Germany, in 2024 Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (EKFS) offered an out-of-the-ordinary opportunity to experienced Clinician Scientists for the sixth time: application to receive one of the Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professorships respectively funded by the foundation with 1.1 million euros. Four of these professorships were awarded in 2024.

Optimization of the use of modern antibody-drug conjugates and immunotherapies in cancer through systems biology approaches

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and immunotherapies are revolutionizing oncology, for example in bladder cancer (enfortumab vedotin + pembrolizumab). However, ADCs only work efficiently if the target structure is present and show “blind spots”. How tumor biology, genetics, surface proteins and tumor microenvironment lead to resistance to ADCs is poorly understood. The scientists therefore use spatial multi-omics and single-cell sequencing to analyze patient tissue from clinical trials (bladder, breast, lung cancer) in order to better understand treatment failure or excellent response.

Autoantibody-mediated kidney diseases – opportunities for future treatments

Autoimmune kidney diseases called glomerulonephritides (GNs) are a common cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD). These diseases primarily affect young patients and often show a particularly aggressive course with rapid loss of kidney function. GNs are responsible for around 1/6 of the 80,000 new dialysis patients annually in the EU. Autoantibodies against kidney proteins play a pathogenic role in many of these diseases.