FEATURED AUTHOR

Niels Halama

Head of Department of Translational Immunotherapy
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)

Niels Halama is the head of the Department of Translational Immunotherapy (DKFZ) and attending physician at the Department of Medical Oncology at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) with a focus on gastrointestinal solid tumors. His interests include pioneering novel immunotherapies as well a new methodologies for computational biomedicine. In addition, another focus is the application and implementation in clinical trials.

Subjects: Biomedical Science, Computer Science & Engineering, Mathematics

Biography

Niels Halama is the head of the Department of Translational Immunotherapy at the DKFZ (https://www.dkfz.de/en/translationale-immuntherapie/index.php) and also an attending physician at the Department of Medical Oncology, at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT). The clinical focus is on gastrointestinal/abdominal solid tumors. In Addition, Niels main interests include pioneering novel immunotherapies harnessing the innate immune system as well as developing tissue processing workflows, human model systems and technologies using whole slide image processing / quantification coupled with multiplex protein quantification to address basic scientific questions. The development of new methodologies for computational biomedicine has become an integral part in all research projects.
These diverse workflows and technologies are being applied in translational projects with implementation in clinical trials. Niels is a board certified medical oncologist, but he also worked in software development for engineering companies.
Niels has (co-)authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, holds more than three patents, and serves as a program committee member on international conferences as well as a reviewer for several international journals. He is also a subject Editor of the British Journal of Cancer.

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Books

Featured Title

Articles

Harnessing the innate immune system and local immunological microenvironment to treat colorectal cancer

Published: Apr 02, 2019 by British Journal of Cancervolume 120, pages871–882 (2019)
Authors: Jakob Kather and Niels Halama

Immunotherapy and modulation of the local immunological microenvironment are discussed in the context of colorectal cancer to illustrate the complexities and hurdles for efficient immunotherapies in difficult-to-treat cancer entities.