Department of Medicine
Clinical Collaboration Unit Translational Immunology

The Clinical Cooperation Unit Translational Immunology is a multidisciplinary unit that develops and applies novel immunotherapeutics for cancer patients. It draws on experience obtained in decades of research regarding the development of optimized antitumor antibodies and vaccination strategies, combined with our expertise in the treatment of malignant diseases and the clinical evaluation of new therapeutic concepts. We work closely together with the specialists at the other Departments at University Hospital Tübingen that treat cancer patients as well as the Department of Immunology.

Patient individual immunotherapy concepts

The direct link between research and patient care enables us to offer our patients newly developed and personalized immunotherapic concepts for tumor diseases.

The increasing understanding of the mechanisms underlying host-tumor interaction led to development of strategies that harness antitumor immunity for cancer treatment. However, while immunotherapy meanwhile has become a mainstay of tumor therapy, there is still ample room for improvement. Some patients do not respond to presently available approaches at all, others for limited time only, and for many cancer entities so far no immunotherapeutic strategies are available. In our view, this calls for efforts to more rapidly translate promising results from research to clinical application. To achieve this superordinate goal, our work focusses on the following key aspects:

Research groups

Education

The rapid developments in tumor immunology and immunotherapy during the recent years call for a greater focus on this topic during academic education. Therefore, the CCU Translational Immunology participates in numerous classes and curricula in human medicine, biochemistry, biology and molecular medicine. In addition to strengthening basic immunological education, in our view it is particularly important to inspire students of human medicine for research for tumor immunology. Likewise it is equally important to illustrate the potential, but also the difficulties of translation in the field of immunotherapy to students of non-clinical natural sciences. Accordingly, we consider an early involvement of students and later also resident physicians and PhD students in translational research as a very important aspect of academic education. The various research groups within the CCU Translational Immunology offer the opportunity to gain insights into basic research and translational projects during internships, bachelor's and master's theses as well as medical and scientific doctoral dissertations. We provide numerous opportunities for further education within the framework of the iFIT excellence cluster, the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Southwest and by attending national and international meetings as well as workshops and courses for career development.

Career

The CCU Translational Immunology offers resident physicians and specialists of the various disciplines involved in treatment of cancer patients the opportunity to gain experience in the development and conduct of clinical trials within the scope of a rotation. With support of our experienced lab staff, this also provides a chance to conduct research projects with the aim to publish scientific work, which enables the application for internal and external research funds as well as research scholarships for stays abroad. For a rotation to the CCU Translational Immunology, a minimum of 2 years clinical experience is mandatory. 

Applications from motivated students for a position to conduct a master's thesis or a medical or scientific doctoral thesis are welcome. The same applies to Ph.D. scientists interested in our field.