PhD Programs & Mentoring

ZMB PhD Programs & Mentoring

PhD Programs

We offer students access to a wide range of structured doctoral programs in the field of biomedical research. This includes DFG funded graduate schools and also joint projects.

RTG 2989: Targeting Cellular Interfaces in Reperfused Acute Myocardial Infarction (TCI repAMI)
RTG 2762: Heterogeneity, plasticity & dynamics in cancer cell, tumor and normal tissue responses to cancer radiotherapy
Integrated Graduate School on Molecular and Chemical Cell Biology, CRC 1430: Molecular Mechanisms on Cell State Transitions
RTG 2535: Knowledge- and data-driven personalization of medicine at the point of care

The Medical Faculty and the University Hospital Essen also run the Graduate School of Biomedical Science (BIOME):

BIOME

Moreover, we have a share in the International Max Planck Research School for Living Matter (IMPRS-LM):

IMPRS-LM

Find out more about ZMB joint projects under ZMB research:
ZMB consortia

DFG funded research training groups

Research Training Group, since 2023:RTG 2989: Targeting Cellular Interfaces in Reperfused Acute Myocardial Infarction (TCI repAMI)

Project		ZMB Member
P3: T cell-mediated inflammatory response from (extra-) cardiac sources	More	Prof. Dr. Wiebke Hansen
P4: Gut dysbiosis modifies vascular integrity and function	More	Prof. Dr. Tienush Rassaf Prof. Dr. Astrid Westendorf
P6: Trained immunity in cardiac cells	More	Prof. Dr. Jens Siveke Prof. Dr. Ulrike Hendgen-Cotta
P7: Targeting cardiomyocyte fate landscape	More	Prof. Dr. Tienush Rassaf Prof. Dr. Ulrike Hendgen-Cotta
P8: Targeting arrhythmias from atrial remodeling	More	Prof. Dr. Jens Siveke
P11: Mitochondrial remodeling and clearing shaping cellular-decision making	More	Prof. Dr. Tienush Rassaf Prof. Dr. Ulrike Hendgen-Cotta

Research Training Group, since 2022:RTG 2762: Heterogeneity, plasticity & dynamics in cancer cell, tumor and normal tissue responses to cancer radiotherapy

Project		ZMB Member
L1: Role of molecular heterogeneity for radiation resistance and metastatic ability in NSCLC	More	Prof. Dr. Barbara M. Grüner
L2: Subtype-specific vulnerabilities of KRAS-driven NSCLC cells with intrinsic or adaptive radiation resistance	More	PD Dr. Johann Matschke
L3: Impact of somatic Lamin mutations on radiation response in lung cancer	More	Prof. Dr. Alexander Schramm
P1: Effect of KRAS gene dosage and molecular subtype on radiosensitivity in PDAC	More	Prof. Dr. Jens Siveke, PD Dr. Johann Matschke
P2: Radiotherapy-induced tumor and stromal cell state regulation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma	More	Prof. Dr. Jens Siveke
P3: Exploring radioimmunotherapy (RIT) as an immunomodulatory therapy in quasi-mesenchymal (QM) versus classic PDAC	More	Prof. Dr. Katharina Lückerath
T1: Biomarkers of pneumonitis and lung fibrosis upon thoracic RT/RCTx with or without concomitant anti-PD-L1 antibody therapy	More	Prof. Dr. Verena Jendrossek
T2: Role of the host microbiota for radiation-induced lung toxicity	More	Prof. Dr. Verena Jendrossek, Prof. Dr. Astrid Westendorf
T3: Modulation of stroma-immune interaction to prevent RT-induced cardiac injury	More	Prof. Dr. Tienush Rassaf
M1: Development of modular computational modeling pipelines for reproducible radiation oncology research	More	Prof. Dr. Daniel Hoffmann
M2: Mathematical modeling of radiotherapy-induced immune responses	More	Dr. Farnoush Farahpour

Research Training Group, since 2021:CRC 1430: Molecular Mechanisms of Cell State Transitions

Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Hemmo Meyer, Center of Medical Biotechnology (ZMB)

Website: https://www.uni-due.de/crc1430/

Project		ZMB Member
A01: Molecular control of kinetochore microtubule interactions at the metaphase-anaphase transition	More	Prof. Dr. Stefan Westermann
A02: Bridging the gap between cell biology and biochemistry with artificial protein prosthetics in cell cycle transitions	More	Prof. Dr. Andrea Musacchio
A03: VCP/p97-cofactor complexes at the intersection of DNA repair and checkpoint control	More	Prof. Dr. Hemmo Meyer
A05: A molecular interface linking DNA replication with cell states of different replication competence	More	Prof. Dr. Dominik Boos
A06: Implications of deregulated proteostasis in cell state transitions	More	Prof. Dr. Michael Ehrmann
A07: Golgi stress: impacting cell cycle transitions	More	Prof. Dr. Doris Hellerschmied
A08: Switching of spatio-temporal Rho GTPase signal network dynamics during cell cycle phase transitions	More	Prof. Dr. Perihan Nalbant
A09: Targeting oncogene-induced DNA repair pathway switches	More	Prof. Dr. Christian Reinhardt
A11: Molecular regulation of differentiation and cell cycle in tumor-repopulating melanoma cells	More	Prof. Dr. Alexander Roesch
A13: IFNγ-induced cell state transition in melanoma	More	Prof. Dr. Annette Paschen
A14: Metastatic transition in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma	More	Dr. Barbara Grüner
B01: Developing chemical tools for investigating cell state transitions	More	Prof. Dr. Markus Kaiser

Research Training Group, since 2021:RTG 2535: Knowledge- and data-driven personalization of medicine at the point of care

Project		ZMB Member
RP15: Summaries and lay translations of clinical documents with transformers	More	Prof. Dr. Peter Horn

Excellent Advice:Mentoring by Nobel Laureates and internationally renowned senior scientists

For selected PhD students we offer an outstanding mentoring opportunity by the two Nobel Laureates Robert Huber and Kurt Wüthrich, as well as by Tim Clausen,a structural biologist and senior scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, and by Thomas Sommer, a biochemist and molecular biologist, and scientific board of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Robert Huber

Emeritus Group

Structure Research

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB)
Martinsried

Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Kurt Wüthrich

Emeritus Group

Wüthrich Group ETH Zürich

Institute for Biochemistry
ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Prof. Dr. Tim Clausen

Clausen Lab

Molecular mechanisms of protein quality control

IMP - Research Institute of Molecular Pathology
Vienna, Austria

Prof. Dr. Thomas Sommer

Sommer Lab

Intracellular Proteolysis

Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC)
Berlin

Interview with Kurt Wüthrich

In October 2017, Prof. Kurt Wüthrich talked about his early education in Switzerland and his scientific career, whether scientific success can be planned, and if a Nobel Prize can be a burden. Watch the teaser:

Error loading media: File could not be played

00:00

Click here for more information and to watch the full interview.