The Animal Welfare Award of University Hospital Essen's Central Animal Laboratory was presented to apl. Prof. Dr. Diana Klein as part of the 30^th Essen Informative Meeting for Animal Welfare Officers, animal experimenters and representatives of authorities involved in animal experiments that took place on 13 March 2024. Apl. Prof. Dr. Klein from Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research) was awarded for a three-dimensional cell model that serves analysis of radiation response in tumors. The ZTL Animal Welfare Award has been awarded for the second time and honours researchers who help to reduce the number of animal experiments, reduce stress in an experiment or even replace animal experiments altogether. 

On 31 January 2024, we celebrated an important milestone in the academic career of one of our young scientists: PD Dr. Johann Matschke (photo: right side), principal investigator of GRK 2762 and Junior Research Group Leader within the Jendrossek Group at the Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research) received the certificate about the venia legendi for Cell Biology.

In his inaugural lecture, he gave a general introduction into metabolic alterations as hallmarks of cancer cells and then provided a perspective on opportunities for their exploitation in cancer treatment, including also his findings of his own research. The habilitation certificate (venia legendi), symbolizing his academic achievements, was presented to him by Prof. Dr. Anke Hinney (photo: left side), Vice Dean for Young Academics and Diversity.

The lecture was attended by numerous guests, including colleagues, friends, and members of the scientific community who have supported PD Dr. Matschke throughout his journey. We are immensely proud of PD Dr. Matschke's achievements and are honored to have witnessed this remarkable milestone in his career. Congratulations, Johann, on your well-deserved recognition and for setting a shining example in the pursuit of excellence in cancer research. 

Apl. Prof. Dr. Diana Klein (photo: right side), GRK 2762 MD project supervisor and junior research group leader at Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research), received the Animal Welfare Research Prize 2023 from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), which is endowed with 25,000 €. Her research focuses on the development and application of cell culture models that mimic human organs and can be used as models for various diseases. These models can then be used to investigate different treatment options, such as radiation and/or chemotherapy. “With the help of the method developed, numerous animal experiments in the field of tumor research can be replaced in the future”, said Parliamentary State Secretary Dr. Ophelia Nick (photo: left side) from BMEL at the award ceremony that took place on 27 November 2023. With the Animal Welfare Research Prize, BMEL has been promoting the development and research of alternative methods to animal testing for many years. Congratulations, Diana!

Around 190 doctoral students attended the 22. Day of Research of UDE's Medical Faculty on 24 November 2023 with the motto "Science and AI - Friend or Foe?". In keeping with tradition, the event was opened by the poster presentations of the doctoral students who presented their research to juries of 3 to 4 internal experts. Among the 21 presentation winners is Safa Larafa, GRK2762 associated PhD student who presented her poster on "Targeting metabolic plasticity to overcome radioresistance induced by chronic cycling hypoxia in Ewing Sarcoma and potential therapeutic approaches". Safa Larafa works at the Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research) under supervision of GRK PIs Prof. Dr. Verena Jendrossek and PD Dr. Johann Matschke and is funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie THERADNET EU consortium. Her presentation was awarded with 250 € prize money, donated by Stiftung Universitätsmedizin Essen. Congratulations, Safa!

The 2023 annual GRK 2762 retreat took place at Hotel Antoniushütte in Balve from 21 to 23 September 2023. Here, the GRK PIs, doctoral students, Post Docs, Clinician Scientist, and associated students had the chance to provide updates, discuss the latest findings, and plan the next steps for their research projects. The GRK 2762 students prepared short pitches to raise curiosity before informing about and discussing their current project status in a poster session. In addition to the student contributions, the initiation and broadening of interdisciplinary cooperation between the versatile GRK projects was at the centre of the discussions, focusing on the connection between the experimental and computational projects, as well as on translational research. The retreat thereby strengthened exchange between the GRK members which is key for successful cooperation and excellent research. 

GRK2762 young scientists Mario Hetzel and Dr. Lena Gockeln won poster awards at the 2023 annual meeting of the German Society of Biological Radiation Research (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biologische Strahlenforschung, DeGBS) that took place from 18 to 20 September 2023 in Pforzheim. With their research projects on radiation-induced pneumopathy, they succeeded in competition with numerous contributions from German radiation research. Both awardees work at the Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research) with GRK PI Prof. Dr. Verena Jendrossek and Post Doc Dr. Florian Wirsdörfer. Mario Hetzel is PhD candidate funded by DFG GRK 2762, Dr. Lena Gockeln is GRK-associated Post Doc supported by UMESciA programme, funded by Else Kröner-Fresenius foundation. Congratulations, Lena and Mario!

Die Materialwissenschaften und die Medizin an der UDE können ihre Forschung weiter ausbauen. Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) fördert zwei neue Graduiertenkollegs mit insgesamt rund 14 Millionen Euro für die nächsten fünf Jahre. Forschungsgegenstand sind die Eigenschaften und die Herstellung von zweidimensionalen Materialien sowie die Wirksamkeit der Strahlenbehandlung bei Krebserkrankungen.
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