Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Christopher Heeschen

Biography

Christopher Heeschen was born in 1966 in Kiel (Germany) and obtained his MD in 1997 at the Free University of Berlin (Germany). His clinical training in Internal Medicine ran from 1996 – 2004 at the University of Hamburg and the University of Frankfurt. During this time, he spent 2.5 years at the Falk Cardiovascular Research Center at Stanford University (USA) where he worked on basic mechanisms of angiogenesis and vasculogenic stem cells and subsequently obtained his PhD in 2001. He became an independent investigator in 2004 as Professor of Experimental Oncology and Transplantation and Head of the Department Experimental at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich (Germany). In 2008 he moved to the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) as a founding member of the Clinical Research Program.  Since October 2013, he is the lead of the new Centre for Stem Cells in Cancer & Ageing at Barts Cancer Institute. He has published more than 100 articles in prestigious scientific journals. His research has been recognized through numerous international awards and has earned an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant for pancreatic cancer research.

Research Interest

Chistopher's research interests include the Comprehensive understanding of the cellular origin of pancreatic cancer stem cells, including their relation to different environmental conditions and how this alters the function of the arising cancer stem cells and studying their consecutive genetic and epigenetic evolution during tumour progression, including acquisition of invasive and metastatic phenotypes. In particular, research his group focuses on: The identification of novel biomarkers for CSCs; Tracking, isolation and characterisation of circulating CSCs; In vivo studies of CSC biology in mouse models; The development of novel CSC-targeting therapies; The generation of nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery; and The clinical translation of novel treatment modalities.