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Spring Academy in Ulm: Medical innovations and creative workshops!
The spring academy at Ulm University (March 24-27, 2025) focuses on medical innovations with 400 participants and top-class lectures.
Spring Academy in Ulm: Medical innovations and creative workshops!
The spring academy will take place at Ulm University from March 24th to 27th, 2025 and is dedicated to the topic “Benefits and effects in medicine”. Almost 400 third-age participants registered both on site and online. The opening lecture will be given by Professor Thomas Wirth, who will talk about future developments in cancer medicine. Those present will be welcomed by Vice President Professor Michael Kühl, while Katrin Albsteiger, the mayor of Neu-Ulm, and Ulrich Soldner, board member of the ZAWiW support group, will give greetings.
Dr. As part of the program presentation, Markus Marquard, managing director of the academy, presents the comprehensive offering, which also includes around 50 guests who joined online. In addition to the main lectures on health policy and genetic risk for tumor diseases, personalized immunotherapies will also be discussed. Participants have the opportunity to purchase tickets for the lectures for 15 euros, either at the ZAWiW secretariat or at the info point in the forum.
Diverse topics and interactive formats
The academy week not only offers lectures, but also working groups in the afternoon as well as activities during the lunch break and on Wednesdays. The topics of the working groups are wide-ranging: from theater games to artificial intelligence in everyday life to sustainable mobility concepts and the climate crisis from the perspective of young activists. A central goal of the academy week is to publicize the offer among students and to promote intergenerational exchange.
A highlight of the event will be the knowledge market on Thursday lunchtime from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Forum. Here, Ulm locations of the German Centers for Medical Research and other research projects present their current work.
Innovations in cancer research
An important topic that belongs in this context is personalized immunotherapy. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the NCT Heidelberg have developed a highly sensitive method for identifying tumor-specific “neoepitopes”. These neoepitopes are protein sections that have been modified by mutations and are recognized as foreign by the immune system.
The new method is based on mass spectrometry (MS) and enables the detection of rare protein fragments. This is particularly important because personalized immunotherapies, such as therapeutic cancer vaccinations or cellular therapies, require precise knowledge of these cancer-typical changes. The method, known as “optiPRM,” results in faster and more precise determination of individual cancer neoepitopes, even from minimal tissue samples.
A neoepitope could be detected in a sample of just 2.5 million cancer cells. A total of five neoepitopes were identified and partially confirmed immunologically in small tumor tissue samples from three patients. Experts emphasize the importance of validating these target epitopes for the development of therapeutic T cells, which can potentially lead to more effective cancer treatment.
The focus on such innovative approaches to identifying cancer markers will be further intensified in various lectures during the spring academy. This once again underlines the importance of current research in cancer medicine and personalized therapy.