Frank Winkler

Professor Frank Winkler is a managing senior physician in the Department of Neurology at the University of Heidelberg and group leader at the German Cancer Research Center. Born in Hamburg, he studied medicine in Hamburg, Freiburg and London, specialized in Neurology at the LMU Munich, spent a 2 year postdoc in Boston, and was appointed to Heidelberg in 2010. Interested in cellular and molecular mechanisms of brain tumor progression, he has pioneered the field of Cancer Neuroscience. By discovering cancer-intrinsic neural mechanisms and neuro-cancer synapses, novel concepts of incurable brain tumor types like glioblastoma and brain metastases have been developed. Based on these discoveries, he has launched investigator-initiated trial concepts where drugs that inhibit neuro-cancer crosstalk are tested. 

Frank Winkler is a 2023 Falling Walls Winner in the Life Sciences category.