Klinik für Innere Medizin IIGastroenterologie, Hepatologie, Endokrinologie und Infektiologie

enables young physicians to undergo advanced training as cancer researchers. Why does the immune system not always fight cancer cells and how can the body's own immune system be stimulated to attack tumors? These are questions that scientists around the world are investigating intensively in the field of tumor immunology. A research college entitled "Excellent Clinician Scientists in Freiburg - Education for Leadership: Immunological Causes and Therapies of Cancer" (EXCEL) has been set up at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg to enable young physicians to enter this research. The participants are temporarily released from clinical duties and carry out projects in the field of tumor immunology on their own responsibility. A total of six physicians will be admitted to the EXCEL research college for three years each. The Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation is funding the program with one million euros for three years.

The aim of the EXCEL program is to enable suitable physicians to pursue a career in the interdisciplinary field of tumor immunology, focusing on the dynamic area of tumor immunology. The participants are trained to use their logical and analytical skills to formulate stringent scientific hypotheses, to design, conduct and interpret experiments to test these hypotheses and to present the results in stylistically successful English. At the end of the funding period, fellows should have successfully acquired third-party funding, i.e. a research proposal should have been approved that is based on the work carried out in the fellowship. This important success marks the first step towards scientific independence in the clinically highly relevant field of tumor immunology.

From the outset, the members of the research group have been working together with a wide range of specialist departments and thus benefit more quickly from new research findings. At the Medical Center - University of Freiburg, the Departments of Medicine I and II, the Department of General and Visceral Surgery, the Department of Pediatrics, the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Comprehensive Cancer Center Freiburg - CCCF are involved. The Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg is also involved in a project.

In addition, there is close cooperation with the Berta Ottenstein Program of the Faculty of Medicine, which was launched in autumn 2016 and aims to support academically active physicians from all departments at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg.

The Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation was established by Else Kröner in 1983. She bequeathed her entire estate to the foundation in her will. The charitable foundation is dedicated to promoting clinically-oriented biomedical research and supporting medical-humanitarian aid projects.