Übersicht

When a tumor is removed, it is often just a few millimeters that determine whether the operation is a success: 
if surgeons cut too close to the tumor, cancer cells can be left in the body. If they leave too wide a margin, they 
can damage important adjacent structures like nerves. Here we want to have an impact.

Since 2022 I am head of the department of Functional Imaging in Surgical Oncology at NCT/UCC Dresden, 
a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, 
the Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus of TU Dresden and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). 
My group and me would like to revolutionize imaging in cancer surgery with a novel method. By combining short-wave 
infrared light, fluorescent dyes and cutting-edge cameras we aim to detect individual cancer cells on tumor margins and 
in lymph nodes during an operation. Our research is very interdisciplinary and collaborative with the goal to achieve 
improved cancer treatments to give patients a better outcome and quality of life. 

I studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Hamburg and completed my PhD at University Hospital 
Hamburg-Eppendorf. As a research associate, I conducted research at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in 
Hamburg and worked for several years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the group of Prof. Moungi 
Bawendi (Nobel Prize winner 2023). In 2018 I became a principal investigator at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus in Munich 
and was supported through the Emmy Noether Program by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

For years I have been conducting pioneering research in the field of SWIR imaging. I work closely with research groups 
all over the world on the development of new dyes and the integration of the latest technological developments in medical 
imaging units, including with groups at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, the University of 
California (Los Angeles), the National Cancer Institute (NCI/NIH, Maryland), Imperial College London, among others. 

The collaboration with Prof. Ellen Sletten from UCLA culminated in the honor of receiving the Helmholtz High Impact Award
in 2024.