Prof. Dr. med. Frank Winkler

Frank Winkler is full professor for Neuro-Oncology at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). As managing senior physician in the Dpt of Neurology, he is clinically specialized in caring for brain tumor patients and in epilepsy. In his research laboratory at the DKFZ, he is using neuroscientific methods to gain novel insights into how brain tumor initiate, invade the brain, grow, interact with neurons and other brain cells, and how they get resistant to all established therapies. Together with his research group, Frank Winkler develops novel concepts for brain tumor therapies, including glioblastoma, astrocytoma, and brain metastases. He has translated his groundbreaking discoveries into clinical trials, e.g. the PerSurge trial funded by the German Ministry of Research. Frank Winkler is one of the founders of the rapidly developing research field “Cancer Neuroscience”, for which he received the BIAL Award for Biomedicine 2024 and the Brain Prize 2025 (https://brainprize.org/winners/cancer-neuroscience-2025). Together with his group he has discovered how cancer cells use neural mechanisms to thrive, and how neuron-cancer interactions govern brain tumor biology.

Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Wick

Wolfgang Wick is Medical Director and Professor of Neurology at the University of Heidelberg and Head of the Department of Neurooncology at the DKFZ. His translational research focuses on precision medicine, for example through innovative clinical trials, therapy resistance, for example as speaker of the first German Collaborative Research Center for Neurooncology (SFB 1389/UNITE; www.unite-glioblastoma.de/), immunotherapy and cancer neuroscience. He was chairman of the Neurooncology Working Group of the German Cancer Society (NOA, 2014-2020), the EORTC Brain Tumor Group (2009-2015) and the European Association for Neuro-Oncology (EANO) (2017-2018). He is currently designing the European Center for Neuro-Oncology (EZN) with colleagues with funding from the Dietmar Hopp Foundation. He is a driving force behind the Heidelberg/Mannheim Health + Life Science Alliance (https://www.health-life-sciences.de/startseite/), a member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) and is currently Chairman of the German Science & Humanities Council.