Prof. Dr. Mathias Heikenwälder

In the "Three questions to" section we ask our new scientists three questions on their research, what they like the most about their new task in Tübingen and how they spend their free time.

1. You are at your class reunion. How do you explain your former classmates what you do for a living?

I work in basic medical research and want to understand how chronic inflammation causes cancer. I work with preclinical models that are very good at replicating the disease development of, for example, a fatty liver to liver cancer or a smoker's lung to lung cancer. Our trials rely on mimicking chronic or acute lifestyle changes - which is why our trials often last longer than a year. We combine high-calorie diets with chronic or acute alcohol consumption. We can test mechanisms and therapies with these models, compare them with human tissue - up to doing first clinical trials in humans. For many of these studies, animal experiments are necessary. The consideration of these experiments and their ethically correct behavior are particularly important to us - and we attach great importance to this.

2. What attracts you to the task in Tübingen?

What appeals to me most about the job in Tübingen is being able to do even more translational work. The transfer of experimental data to the clinic is becoming increasingly important. Integrating the new approaches, the microbiome and metabolome, into these translational steps and being able to treat cancer better appeals to me, as does the scientific and human environment at the University Hospital and the Medical Faculty. Of course, I am fascinated by the new M3 Research Institute on campus, which I will lead together with Prof. Nisar Malek, with the fantastic groups we have been able to recruit so far, and last but not least, the collaboration with many well-known colleagues, the excellence initiatives in Tübingen, and especially the collaboration with Prof. Malek have been incredibly motivating and also convincing.

3. And what do you like to do most in your free time?

In my free time I like to do sports and play with my children. It clears my head, gives me new energy and I always get good ideas for my work.