Our Year by Topics

The Department of Neurosurgery at the UKHD is launching a project on combination therapy for regrown glioblastomas. Glioblastomas are highly aggressive brain tumors that grow back after a few months despite intensive therapy. The scientists are now planning a study with the aim of slowing down further tumor growth. To do this, they want to heat the tumor precisely using an inserted laser probe and allow the tumor samples obtained to grow into mini-organoids. They want to carry out drug tests on these and thus identify the most effective drug for further therapy. The Dietmar Hopp Foundation is funding the treatment study with a total of 1.8 million euros.

The Orthopaedic Clinic of the UKHD celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. After the foundation stone was laid during the First World War, the clinic began operations as part of the university. The building architecture still reflects the history of the clinic today. Behind the façade, however, the tradition of modern medicine takes precedence: in addition to medical care and the application of the latest technologies, research and development play a major role in areas such as cartilage and bone replacement substances or implants for joint replacement made of ceramic or titanium. The clinic's areas of focus range from joint replacement in the hip, knee and shoulder to tumor and spinal surgery, paediatric and neuro-orthopaedics as well as sports orthopaedics and traumatology.

A “European Center for Neurooncology” is being established in Heidelberg. The scientists involved want to investigate what role the nervous system plays when brain tumors become resistant to therapies and form brain metastases. They also want to develop personalized immunotherapies against brain tumors. The center - also as part of the Health & Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim - aims to bundle neuro-oncological research in the region and strengthen its leading international role in the new field of “cancer neuroscience” and immuno-oncology. The Dietmar Hopp Foundation is funding the establishment of the center with 20 million euros.

The German Research Foundation is funding a new Emmy Noether junior research group at the UKHD for six years with a total of around 2.1 million euros. The group led by Dr. Ferdinand Althammer at the Institute of Human Genetics is investigating how the abnormal behavior in two rare developmental disorders is linked to a deficiency of the bonding hormone oxytocin in the brain. The affected children suffer from a range of mental and physical symptoms. The scientists want to elucidate the underlying mechanisms in order to develop new therapies to alleviate these symptoms.

The four university hospitals in Baden-Württemberg are developing a joint care concept for people with long-COVID and post-COVID syndrome. The state is funding the development of the network under the coordination of the UKHD with two million euros. Close cooperation between specialist outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities, GP and specialist practices and therapists is intended to improve care, training and knowledge transfer. The range of long-COVID symptoms is wide and those affected have very different care needs. The new concept is intended to combine the latest research with the experience of the various network partners and guide each affected person to the appropriate contact person and the most suitable therapy.

The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities has elected virologist Professor Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Director of the Center for Infectiology at the UKHD, as its new President. His three-year term of office began on October 1, 2023. The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities is a non-university research institution and learned society. It promotes interdisciplinary exchange, for example through lectures, events or interdisciplinary research projects by established and young scientists.

The UKHD Nursing Directorate and the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation awarded the Heidelberg Nursing Prize for the fifth time in 2023. The prize recognizes original project ideas for better patient care and greater satisfaction among patients and nursing staff. Among the projects honored were a study on how images, videos and music can be used in therapy and a screening tool that identifies risk factors that can lead to cognitive impairment after an operation.

Far more than half of children suffering from tuberculosis worldwide are not recognized and treated as such - due to a lack of medical expertise and diagnostic tools on site. Researchers at the Center for Infectious Diseases want to help here and have been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council worth around two million euros. The team is developing an app that uses artificial intelligence to calculate the individual risk of tuberculosis infection. Thanks to this pre-selection, as many sick children as possible can be found and treated, even when resources are scarce.

The research team led by Professor Julio Saez-Rodriguez, Head of the Institute of Computational Biomedicine at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University, together with colleagues from EMBL and other scientists from Sweden, has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant worth 10 million euros for their CartoHostBug project. They are investigating the interactions between the human host and the microbiome in the gut, comparing healthy people with patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer. The aim is to use the spatial information to create “maps” of the microbial composition and molecular status of human cells at spatially defined locations. Based on this data, they want to develop computer models of the intestinal ecosystem in order to gain new insights and ultimately develop new therapies.

Professor Philipp Vollmuth, physician and scientist at UKHD and MFHD, is researching how artificial intelligence can support doctors in assessing diagnostic images, particularly in the case of brain tumors and strokes. With his innovative research, he won the competition for one of the coveted endowed professorships of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS). The associated funding of one million euros over ten years enables the clinically active neuroradiologist to devote half of his working time to his scientific projects.

Since going online in 2016, the AI “Heidelberg Brain Tumor Classifier” has analyzed molecular data from more than 100,000 brain tumors. A study published in Nature Medicine confirms the benefits of the method developed at the Hopp Children's Tumor Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the UKHD for cancer diagnosis. The AI-supported analysis enables brain tumors in children and adolescents to be classified not only more precisely, but also more reliably for certain tumor groups than with a microscope. The study shows that patient groups with rare tumor types and certain, particularly aggressive brain tumors benefit in particular.

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the UKHD inaugurated the extension and annex to the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg in October 2023. The client DKFZ ceremoniously handed over the key to the UKHD, which will operate the building. At the same time, the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, and ministers from the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony signed a federal-state administration agreement for the NCT, thereby sealing the expansion of the NCT concept to six sites.

After 257 years, the long-established midwifery school of the Academy for Health Professions Heidelberg (AfG) of the UKHD has closed. It was one of the oldest training centers for midwives in Germany. As part of the academization of this profession, it will in future act as a coordination point for the practical phase of the midwifery science course in cooperation with the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences (HWG LU).

The Dietmar Hopp Foundation is funding two projects at the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ) so that young cancer patients can receive more effective therapies with fewer side effects more quickly. 10.5 million euros are being invested in the establishment of an international clinical “data depot”. The aim is to create the conditions for children and young people to benefit as quickly as possible from cancer drugs that have already been approved for adults. A further 10.4 million euros will be used to expand the KiTZ study center in order to further develop new therapeutic approaches with fewer side effects in clinical studies as quickly as possible.

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (Ruperto Carola) tops the list in the current Academic Ranking of World Universities - also known as the Shanghai Ranking - in a national comparison. The medical disciplines in particular contributed to the university's good performance. Heidelberg achieved a global top 50 ranking in five university medicine subjects: Medical Technology (15), Clinical Medicine (17), Pharmacology (30), Public Health (45) and Human Biology (47). The US magazine “Newsweek” has once again named Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) one of the best hospitals in the world in 2023. In the “World's Best Hospitals” ranking, which is compiled in collaboration between “Newsweek” and the statistics and data platform “Statista”, the UKHD is ranked 13th worldwide. In Germany, the UKHD is in second place, just behind the Charité in Berlin.

The German Cancer Society has confirmed that the Center for Familial Breast and Ovarian Cancer offers high quality treatment for early detection, genetic counseling and therapy. This makes the UKHD the first certified center of its kind in Baden-Württemberg. Prerequisites for certification include intensive cooperation in the fields of gynecology, human genetics, oncology, radiology, pathology and psycho-oncology, joint case discussions, constant quality controls, a high level of expertise measured by the number of patients as well as further education and training opportunities.