Interview with Michael Baumann: “It won’t work without collaborative partnerships”

Professor Baumann, as the new head of Germany’s largest biomedical research institute, you have a very full diary. Despite this, you appear amazingly calm. Is this because you are already very familiar with the DKFZ from many years of collaboration, or is it a northern personality trait?

Michael Baumann: I have been eagerly looking forward to starting at the DKFZ. And getting to know the DKFZ researchers and departments better is absolutely fascinating. I do indeed already have close ties to the DKFZ because it has always been a very important partner for Dresden and an initiator of joint projects at the German Cancer Consortium and the National Center for Tumor Diseases in Dresden . I wouldn’t describe myself as a typical northerner, but a healthy dose of calm doesn’t do any harm when one wants to strike out in new directions.

Dresden is an up-and-coming location for cancer medicine, amongst others in your field: radiotherapy. Your most recent posts there were as Director of Radiation Therapy at the University Hospital, Director of Radiooncology at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Director of the OncoRay Center, Director of the University Cancer Center (UCC) and in the end Director of the new NCT center in Dresden. So what prompted you to move to Heidelberg?

Michael Baumann: The DKFZ is one of the top centers in the world and currently has a much broader focus than the Dresden center. For me, it is therefore a great opportunity to work with colleagues in Heidelberg and DKFZ partners to achieve further advances in cancer research – and by that I always mean basic research, preclinical and clinical research. An opportunity like this only comes along once in a lifetime!

You started focusing on close integration between basic research and clinical research very early on. In this context, Dresden supported the idea of setting up the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) from the very beginning. You have just been elected Spokesman for the DKTK. What do you see as the priority task for this nationwide network?

Michael Baumann: Cancer research has made huge advances in recent years and Germany is in a fantastic position in this field. However, the translation of preclinical research into clinical practice needs to become much more efficient. I see the key role of the DKTK as setting up multicenter and multidisciplinary infrastructure to improve conditions for clinically oriented cancer research.  This is the only way personalized cancer medicine can become possible.

An international committee of experts recently rated the DKTK’s work as ‘outstanding’. What do the experts see as the main successes of the past five years?

Michael Baumann: Bringing together more than 20 research institutes behind one shared vision is no easy task, but the DKTK has succeeded in a unique way through intensive ideas sharing, by building up joint research infrastructure and through multicenter research activities in a very short time. A number of clinical trials have already been developed and initiated under the DKTK umbrella, and more than 1,600 scientific papers have been published. The DKTK is therefore already taking on a model, pioneering role for translational cancer research in Europe. I am convinced that this dynamic trend will continue.

Does clinically oriented cancer research in Germany and Europe only work in a network?

Michael Baumann: If we seriously want to develop personalized cancer medicine, it won’t work without collaborative partnerships. Even big university hospitals usually see only a few patients each year with any one specific type of cancer with specific biological characteristics. The only way to deal with this is through larger networks.

You yourself have carried out research as a physician in Boston. The USA follows a very different approach...

Michael Baumann: In the USA, each center is very often competing with the next one and they are expanding. I was able to see this at a number of locations when I visited the USA with Health Minister Hermann Gröhe: clinics are buying up hospitals and medical practices so that they have a sufficiently large number of patients within their own center. This is a fundamentally different approach to the one followed in Germany, where university hospitals are comparatively small and good multicenter partnerships exist that can be extended. Germany and Europe have big advantages here because the desire to work together is much stronger here than in the USA.

The Radiation Oncology and Imaging Program is an important research area within the DKTK. You yourself have been conducting research in this field for 25 years and want to continue with your own research. How exactly do you hope to advance personalized radiotherapy?

Michael Baumann: Primarily in the area of personalized radiooncology. I am interested in the following questions: How can we use biomarker combinations to identify in advance the biology of a tumor (which can be very sensitive to radiotherapy in one patient and resist radiotherapy in another)? And how can we then translate this knowledge into personalized radiotherapy concepts in order, for instance, to decide whether a patient should receive radiotherapy and, if so, in what form?

You have been the spokesman for the Dresden center ever since the DKTK was established. What new responsibilities do you have as the national DKTK spokesman?

Michael Baumann: It is, of course, a change of perspective and I see it as a great opportunity. In the coming year, the aim will be to implement the DKTK’s successful strategy in all areas and to continue developing it so as to pool cutting-edge translational oncology research in the best possible way. I see my role as overseeing this ongoing strategy development process and ensuring that a purposeful discussion takes place.

What will be the role of the DKFZ?

Michael Baumann: Each of the translation centers at the individual locations is a joint establishment by the DKFZ and the university hospital, sometimes even with additional partners. For this reason alone, it makes sense for the DKFZ to play a key role in the coordination work. But from an administrative point of view as well, the DKFZ already has the necessary capacity to coordinate a nationwide consortium. In addition, its cancer research activities cover a very broad spectrum and it has a wide range of expertise, cutting-edge technologies and large pieces of equipment. The university hospitals provide patient care and conduct patient-side cancer research at the highest level, and are often strong in basic research within the individual fields.  The close collaboration within the DKTK creates added value for everyone involved and opens up brand new possibilities for cancer medicine.

Professor Baumann, the gap you are leaving in Dresden won’t be easy to fill. Heidelberg and Dresden have close links through the DKTK, the NCT, the Krebsinformationsdienst (cancer information service) and the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology. Will you be staying in touch with Dresden?

Michael Baumann: Dresden is in an excellent position: Mechthild Krause is now head of the DKTK center. She has also taken over management of the NCT center, together with Martin Bornhäuser and Jürgen Weitz. But I am sure that I will also stay in contact with them.

Dresden boasts a beautiful baroque old town and the Semperoper opera house, and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are close by. How difficult was it for you to leave?

Michael Baumann: Dresden has lots of beautiful aspects that I will remember fondly. But now I am eager to get to know the charming city of Heidelberg and I’m looking forward to exploring the interesting area around the Bergstraße mountain route.

Michael Baumann received his Doctor of Medicine degree in Hamburg in 1988, after which he worked as a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston. After training as a radiotherapy specialist, he qualified as a professor in Hamburg in 1994. In 1995 he joined TU Dresden as head of experimental radiooncology. During his time as Director of Radiotherapy at University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus and as Director of the Institute of Radiooncology at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and of the OncoRay Center, he played a key role in establishing Dresden as a center for radiooncology research. He was also the founding director of the University Cancer Center Dresden (UCC) and the spokesman for the Dresden center of the DKTK and NCT. On November 1, 2016, he joined the DKFZ, which he now runs together with Administrative Director Josef Puchta.