Special MTZ-Award goes to Michael Floßdorf
Michael Floßdorf © privat
Michael Floßdorf, Leader of the e:Med junior research group Quan-T-Cell, recieved the Special MTZ Award of the DKFZ 2017 for his outstanding research. The scientist is investiating the immunological memory development and is using nmathematical models for this approach. After his Post-Doc at the DFKZ he now started his own research group in munich.
dkfz press release (translated):
How is the immunological memory build? Michael Floßdorf from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) was able to solve this central question of immunology with the help of mathematical modeling. The young scientist has now received the special award of the MTZ Foundation.
"In his research, Michael Floßdorf moves confidently between mathematical modeling, biological experiment and medical application and is an exceptional talent in the still young field of systems biology. He has the important ability to extract concrete hypotheses and predictions from extensive systems biological datasets, which will become the starting point for new experiments," said the MTZ Foundation about the winner's selection.
In his doctoral thesis, Michael Floßdorf devoted himself to a central question of immunology - the cellular origin of immunological memory. He and his cooperation partners found that the immunological memory against infections already develops at the beginning of the immune response. Already the first immune response, not only the later memory response in case of infection with the same pathogen, is derived from the stem cell-like memory cells. Together with his cooperation partners at the Technical University of Munich, he succeeded in confirming the theoretical predictions experimentally.
These findings are surprising, as many scientists have assumed that the memory cells form late during the immune response. In addition, the results have a high potential for medical application because they identify immune cells that may be particularly effective for immunodeficiency and cancer cell therapy.
Michael Floßdorf studied physics in Heidelberg and at the Michigan State University and performed his doctorate at the DKFZ in the Department of Theoretical Systems Biology. During his subsequent time as a postdoctoral fellow at the DKFZ, he sucessfully aquired the junior research group on systemic medicine "Quan-T-Cell" sponsored by the BMBF e:Med program in 2015.
On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, the MTZ Foundation has awarded the 2,500€ Special MTZ Award, which is exclusively aimed at young scientists at the DKFZ. The award is also a recognition of the scientific work of the DKFZ as a whole. The MTZ Foundation promotes young, top-class junior scientists to advance research on disease cause and the development of therapeutics.
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