Klaus Pantel - Biography#

Professor Klaus Pantel is Director of the Institute of Tumor Biology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. The Institute is part of the Center for Experimental Medicine and the University Cancer Center (UCCH). Prof. Pantel graduated from the University of Cologne in 1986 and completed his dissertation in 1987 in the field of mathematical models of hematopoiesis. After his postdoctoral training in the USA at Wayne State University, Detroit, where he conducted research on hematopoietic stem cell regulation, he spent 10 years at the Institute of Immunology at the University of Munich, where he habilitated in 1995 in the field of experimental immunology and immunotherapies. Prof. Pantel's pioneering work in the field of micrometas-tasis and liquid biopsy (analysis of tumor components in the blood, e.g. circulating tumor cells and circulating nucleic acids (ctDNA, microRNAs)) of solid tumors is reflected in more than 600 publications (h-factor 161) in excellent high-ranking biomedical and scientific journals (incl. NEJM, Lancet, Nature Journals, Cancer Cell, Sci-ence Translational Medicine, Cancer Discovery, PNAS, JCO, JNCI, Cancer Res.). His research work has been recognized by the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award 2010, the German Cancer Award 2010, and four ERC Grants, among others. He is the Founder and current President of the European Liquid Biopsy Society (www.elbs.eu) which is an internaton organisation of more than 100 institutions worldwide aimed to implement liquid biopsy into clinical pactice. Furthermoe, Prof. Pantel is the current Scientific Coordinator/Lead-PI of the EU consortia PANCAID (https://pancaid-project.eu/) and GUIDE-MRD (www. https://www.guidemrd-horizon.eu/), two large scale European projects of experts focusig on early detection of pancreatic cancer and the detection of minimal residial disease (MRD) in colorectal, lung and pancreatic cancer. For the past 10 years, he serves on the Executive Board of the University Cancer Center, highlighting the translational nature of his research and its importance for personalized medicine.