The Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ) is a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and the University of Heidelberg (Uni HD).
The foundation honors two works of children's cancer research in Heidelberg. Physician and scientist Franziska Blaeschke from the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) received the award for her work on cellular immunotherapies in children published in 2023. Blaeschke has developed a method that can be used to increase the effectiveness of so-called CAR-T cells. In a high-throughput screening based on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene scissors, the immune cells with the best chances of success for treatment can be identified from thousands of candidates. In immunotherapies with CAR-T cells, the body's own immune cells (T cells) are removed from patients and genetically modified outside the body so that they can recognize malignant cells and take action against the cancer. The CAR-T cells are then multiplied and transferred back to the patient in order to specifically attack the tumor.
Franziska Blaeschke studied medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University and Technical University in Munich, where she completed her medical doctoral thesis on T-cell therapy for childhood bone tumors. She began her specialist training in pediatrics at the University Hospital of Tübingen and moved to the Hauner Children's Hospital in Munich in 2015, where she completed her scientific doctorate on CAR T-cell therapies for children with leukemia. From 2019 to 2023, she researched at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Gladstone Institutes in the USA. Since March 2024, Blaeschke has headed the junior research group for pediatric immuno-oncology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ).
David Jones from KiTZ and DKFZ and Dominik Sturm from KiTZ and UKHD also share the prize for their jointly published work on an AI-based molecular diagnostic method that allows tumors to be classified more precisely and reliably than with microscopic methods. Since going online in 2016, the AI “Heidelberg Brain Tumor Classifier” has analyzed molecular data from more than 100,000 tumor samples. The study by Jones and Sturm involving around 1,200 children and adolescents with cancer shows that young patients with rare tumor types and certain, particularly aggressive brain tumors in particular benefit from the molecular diagnostic procedure and AI analysis. For example, by making diagnoses more precise and thus enabling better treatment decisions to be made.
David Jones researched childhood brain tumors during his PhD at the University of Cambridge in the UK. In 2010, he continued his research at DKFZ and KiTZ in Heidelberg and took over the working group for pediatric glioma research, the most common type of brain tumor in children and adolescents, in 2019. Since 2021, he has also headed the department of the same name at DKFZ and has held the professorship for translational pediatric glioma research since 2024.
Dominik Sturm studied medicine in Freiburg and Heidelberg and specialized in the research of highly aggressive brain tumors in children and adolescents in his medical doctoral thesis. Since 2013, he has been a doctor in the pediatric oncology department of UKHD, which is part of KiTZ. Among other things, he coordinates the Molecular Neuropathology research program at KiTZ.
As the Kind-Philipp Prize is being awarded for two works this year, the prize money will be split: Franziska Blaeschke receives 5,000 euros, David Jones and Dominik Sturm together also receive 5,000 euros.
Award-winning original publications:
Sturm, D. et al. Multiomic neuropathology improves diagnostic accuracy in pediatric neuro-oncology. In: Nature Medicine (Online Publikation March 16, 2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02255-1
Blaeschke, F. et al. Modular pooled discovery of synthetic knockin sequences to program durable cell therapies. In: Cell (Online Publikation Sept 14, 2023) DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.08.013
About the Kind-Phllipp-Prize
It is the most prestigious prize in the field of pediatric oncology and is awarded annually to the best work by German-speaking authors on research into leukemia and cancer in children. It also encourages further progress in research and therapy. The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and is awarded following an independent review by experts on the recommendation of the Society for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology.
