35th Anniversary Symposium

Some 35 researchers and doctoral students traveled from Israel to participate in the annual DKFZ-MOST Partnership workshop. Together with their DKFZ colleagues, they discussed the current status of their collaboration and reported the progress in their joint projects in cancer-relevant basic research. They utilized their time in Heidelberg from March 10 – 13 to deepen the German-Israeli partnership and friendships.

The highpoint this year was the symposium in the Alte Aula of Heidelberg University to mark the 35th year of the cooperation and to take leave from Prof. Dr. Wolfhard Semmler as the national coordinator of the DKFZ-MOST Program. His contributions to the formation and continued development of the program was acknowledged by Prof. Otmar Wiestler in his welcoming speech, as well as by the Israeli Minister for Research Prof. Daniel Herschkowitz in his and the program member Prof. Varda Rotter from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot in her tribute. This was also echoed by the current coordinators Prof. Peter Angel and Dr. Ahmi Ben-Yehuda in their speeches. They are looking forward to continuing the successful work in the future.

The breadth of the cooperation program was revealed by Prof. Peter Krammer during an overview of the projects at his lab and in the keynote lecture given by Prof. Fabian Kießling entitled “Molecular imaging and theranostics at present:the fruits of a pioneer´s work”.

To further enhance scientific exchange between both countries, an annual German-Israeli Cancer Research School takes place. This affords ten post-docs and ten doctoral students from both countries the opportunity to discuss current topics in cancer research with internationally recognized experts in the field. The 6th German-Israeli Cancer Research School is planned for November 2013 in Israel. The central theme will be “Novel preclinical mouse models of human cancer”.