German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is a national biomedical research institute in Heidelberg, Germany, founded in 1964. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association and exists to study cancer from molecular mechanisms through epidemiology and prevention, rather than as a full teaching university. It grew beside Heidelberg University and the university hospital on the Neuenheimer Feld biomedical campus.

Research is organized in programs on cell and tumor biology, infection and cancer, imaging and radiooncology, and cancer risk factors. Doctoral researchers use the National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg, shared core facilities, and clinical partners at Heidelberg University Hospital.

The institute employs about 3,000 people, including a large share of international scientists and doctoral candidates. Harald zur Hausen, who spent a long career at DKFZ, received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for linking human papillomaviruses to cervical cancer.

Graduate study is a full-time research doctorate of about three to four years through the Helmholtz International Graduate School for Cancer Research, with the degree typically awarded in partnership with Heidelberg University. Students are funded on institute contracts and live in Heidelberg, a compact university city on the Neckar with a concentrated life-science quarter.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) lists 1 doctoral program, in biology.