Otmar D. Wiestler (born 6 November 1956 in Freiburg im Breisgau) is a German physician, a professor at the University of Heidelberg and president of the Helmholtz Association. He is not a typical basic scientist, but he successfully entered a number of highly popular fields of clinical research, including cancer research, tumor genetics and, more recently, stem cell research. He focuses on technology transfer of already existing technologies from basic science into clinical use, rather than developing the basic science.
From 1975 to 1981 Wiestler went to the Medical School at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. Under the direction of Paul Kleihues and Benedict Volk, Wiestler worked as assistant at the University of Freiburg until 1994, when he finished his thesis with summa cum laude. As a PostDoc he joined Gernot Walter for three years at the Institute of Pathology at the University of California San Diego. From 1987 to 1992 he was staff physician at the Department of Neuropathology at the Institute of Pathology of the University Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland, again with Paul Kleihues. In 1989 he temporarily headed the department. From 1992 to 2003, he was elected full professor and chair for Neuropathology at the university clinics in Bonn.
Since 2000 Wiestler is known to the public as a supporter of stem cell research in Germany.
From 2002 to 2003 Wiestler was also CEO of LIFE & BRAIN GmbH in Bonn. In 2004, Wiestler succeeded Harald zur Hausen as Chairman and scientific member of the Foundation Board of the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ). In 2015 he became President of the Helmholtz Association. In 2019 he was re-elected for a second term until 2025.
On 8 April 2005 Wiestler received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. [8]
Wiestler has numerous original publications in journals of the neuropathology and cancer research. He also edited several books and is in the Editorial Board of various journals.
Oligodendrogliomas are a type of glioma that are believed to originate from the oligodendrocytes of the brain or from a glial precursor cell. They occur primarily in adults but are also found in children.
Dieter Salomon is a German politician of Alliance '90/The Greens who served as mayor of Freiburg im Breisgau for two terms from 2002 until 2018.
The German Cancer Research Center is a national cancer research center based in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the largest scientific organization in Germany.
Petra Roth is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She was the Mayor of Frankfurt from 1995 to 2012. In addition she twice served as president of the Deutscher Städtetag, resuming her previous post there in 2009. The group is the head organization and lobby group for all German cities vis-à-vis the Cabinet of Germany, the German Bundestag, the Bundesrat of Germany, the European Union (EU) and many organizations.
Günter Matthias Ziegler is a German mathematician who has been serving as president of the Free University of Berlin since 2018. Ziegler is known for his research in discrete mathematics and geometry, and particularly on the combinatorics of polytopes.
Rüdiger Grube is a German engineer who served as the chairman of the board of Deutsche Bahn from 2009 until 2017 and as the chairman of EADS from 2007 until 2009.
Harald zur Hausen NAS EASA APS was a German virologist. He carried out research on cervical cancer and discovered the role of papilloma viruses in cervical cancer, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008. He was chairman of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
The WHOclassification of tumours of the central nervous system is a World Health Organization Blue Book that defines, describes and classifies tumours of the central nervous system (CNS).
The giant-cell glioblastoma is a histological variant of glioblastoma, presenting a prevalence of bizarre, multinucleated giant cells.
Karl-Heinz Streibich is a German manager who served as chairman of the executive board and chief executive officer of the Germany-based software company Software AG from 2003 until 2018. Prior to that he was deputy chairman and deputy chief executive officer of T-Systems
Peter Heinrich Krammer is a German immunologist and one of the directors of The National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), as well as the head of the Division Immunogenetics at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. Peter H. Krammer is well known for his research and findings in apoptosis. He and his lab members discovered the CD95 receptor and many other molecules involved in signaling through the CD95 receptor.
Jörg Hinrich Hacker is a German microbiologist. He served as president of the Robert Koch Institute from 2008 to 2010 and of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina from 2010 to 2020. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Medical Microbiology.
The Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, established by National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) and named in honor of Albert Szent-Györgyi, Nobel laureate and co-founder of NFCR, has been awarded annually since 2006 to outstanding researchers whose scientific achievements have expanded the understanding of cancer and whose vision has moved cancer research in new directions. The Szent-Györgyi Prize honors researchers whose discoveries have made possible new approaches to preventing, diagnosing and/or treating cancer. The Prize recipient is honored at a formal dinner and award ceremony and receives a $25,000 cash prize. In addition, the recipient leads the next "Szent-Györgyi Prize Committee" as honorary chairman.
The Ernst Schering Prize is awarded annually by the Ernst Schering Foundation for especially outstanding basic research in the fields of medicine, biology or chemistry anywhere in the world. Established in 1991 by the Ernst Schering Research Foundation, and named after the German apothecary and industrialist, Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering, who founded the Schering Corporation, the prize is now worth €50,000.
Lutz Gissmann is a German virologist and was head of the division Genome Modifications and Carcinogenesis at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg until his retirement in 2015. Lutz Gissmann is known for his seminal research in the field of human papillomaviruses (HPV) and their causal association with human cancer, especially cervical cancer. In his early work, he demonstrated genetic heterogeneity among HPV isolates leading the way to the now well-established concept of distinct HPV types of which some are associated with specific benign or malignant disease. In the early 1980s in the laboratory of later Nobel Prize laureate Harald zur Hausen he was the first to isolate and characterize HPV16 and HPV18, the two most oncogenic HPV types causing the vast majority of HPV-induced anogenital and head-and-neck cancers. This groundbreaking work of Lutz Gissmann provided experimental evidence for the causal association of specific HPV types with human cancer, and laid the foundation for the development of prophylactic HPV vaccines for the prevention of cervical cancer and other HPV-induced cancers. His current research interest is on development of second generation prophylactic and therapeutic HPV vaccines.
Detlev Ganten is a specialist in pharmacology and molecular medicine and is one of the leading scientists in the field of hypertension. He founded the World Health Summit in 2009. He was Chairman of the Foundation Board of the Charité Foundation (2005–2015), editor of the Journal of Molecular Medicine, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology as well as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ethnological Museum Dahlem of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Hartmut Beug (1945–2011) was a German cancer biologist who studied how groups of oncogenes interact to lead to the development and spread of cancer. Shortly before his death, a foundation was set up in his and his wife’s name to support collaboration among young scientists and their studies in the field of metastasis.
Vasilis Ntziachristos is a Greek American biomedical engineer, scientist, and inventor best known for his development of fundamental and translational research tools for imaging tissues based on fluorescence and optoacoustics.
Manfred Bischoff is a German businessman who has been the chairman of the supervisory boards of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz.
Fabian Kiessling is a German radiologist, university lecturer and author as well as a scientist in the field of molecular imaging.