DKFZ German Cancer Research Center

About DKFZ German Cancer Research Center

Every year, 500,000 people in Germany contract cancer. This disease presents particular challenges for research, as cancer is not always the same, and often the illness progresses differently from patient to patient. The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), as the largest biomedical research institution in Germany and a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, is dedicated to cancer research according to its statutes. Our more than 3,000 employees, including over 1,200 scientists, research in over 100 departments and working groups how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors, and seek strategies to prevent people from developing cancer. They develop new approaches for more precise tumor diagnosis and more successful treatment of cancer patients. A special honor was the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Medicine to Prof. Harald zur Hausen in 2008. He discovered that human papillomaviruses (HPV) cause cervical cancer. In 2014, Prof. Stefan W. Hell, another DKFZ scientist, received the Nobel Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his "development of high-resolution fluorescence microscopy." The staff of the Cancer Information Service (KID) inform affected individuals, relatives, and interested citizens about the common disease of cancer. The center is funded 90 percent by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. To maintain the "high-performance operation of science," an efficient structure of the research center is necessary. An overview of the overall structure is provided by the organizational chart. The scientific departments and working groups are divided into six research priorities. The Core Facilities support scientists with all routine tasks. Staff units report directly to the DKFZ Executive Board. The administrative departments support employees in all matters of personnel, finance, or purchasing. The DKFZ committees advise the Executive Board on scientific, research policy, and financial matters. The DKFZ Alumni Association aims to network former and current scientists, thus promoting scientific exchange beyond the time at DKFZ.