The two-day 2025 retreat of the BIOME cores on Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Infectious Diseases, and Tumour and Signalling was hosted in Essen last week. Invited keynote speakers were Dr. Chong Sun (DKFZ German Cancer Research Center) who spoke about identifying limiting factors in antitumor T cell responses, Prof. Andreas Baur (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen) who shared insights on the astonishing dimension of plasma extracellular vesicles, and Prof. Bruce Morgan (Universität des Saarlandes) who discussed the redox landscape, spanning from metabolite dynamics to cellular decision-making. A special after-dinner highlight on the first day was the meet-the-expert round with the guest speakers where they described their personal career paths and shared some words of advice with the young researchers for their professional futures based on their own experience. At the closing session of the event, best poster awards were presented to Hannah Breiter, Lea Otte, and Vaasudevan Sridhar, while the best doctoral talk prize was deservedly awarded to Georgia Antonopoulou. This year's retreat was excellently co-organised by Paula Busskamp Castro, Mohamed Elbeltagy, Michelle Elbert, and Vivienne Schneider.

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The Ischaemia, Reperfusion and Angiogenesis core's annual retreat keynote speaker this year was Prof. Dr. Matthias Gunzer from the University Hospital Essen, Institute for Experimental Immunology and Imaging, who presented a talk on "How unexpected findings can drive your research - if you let them." It was an excellent lecture, beginning with a general historical excursion into coincidences in science. Examples of such are the discovery of penicillin, radioactivity, cosmic background radiation, etc.. Prof. Gunzer then went on to give a fascinating account of how his research group discovered the role of neutrophil granulocytes in stroke. Here, too, it all began with a chance observation.

After a short break, the students gave short presentations on "disruptive, shocking, or life-changing" methods or findings. The presentations covered topics such as pacemakers, computed tomography, the advantages and disadvantages of AI in perinatal or neural medicine, and nanomaterials. All presentations were discussed in a lively and often controversial manner.

During a closing get-together session following these doctoral presentations, the retreat participants exchanged views on progress and challenges in their various scientific fields.

BIOME welcomes the new DFG-funded research training group 3043, AMTEC-PRO – Advanced Methods and Technologies for Proton Therapy. AMTEC-PRO aims at improving the standard of care in proton therapy through the use of advanced methods, novel treatment approaches and emerging technologies, and to train new generations of interdisciplinary researchers. Its central element is the West German Proton Therapy Center in Essen (WPE) – a leading institution for proton radiotherapy in Europe and one of the most advanced proton therapy centers in the world.

The foundation of the research programme is strong fundamental research in STEM disciplines, applied to medical challenges. The research projects operate at the interfaces of medicine, physics, and chemistry, integrating modern particle technology and machine learning. The research activities are aligned with key aspects of the proton therapy workflow, with the aim of achieving clinically relevant improvements.

Key research areas include the development of new instruments and methods to improve precision in proton therapy, the investigation of radiation effects to enhance tumour cell eradication and reduce side effects, as well as the study of Gd complexes and noble metal nanoparticle sensitizers to improve tumour control.

The qualification programme is designed to meet the needs and strengths of its participants. It supports young researchers in developing the skills required to become independent and responsible scientists. With the growing demand for highly qualified professionals in STEM and medicine, AMTEC-PRO’s interdisciplinary approach will provide its graduates with excellent career prospects.

This year’s Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience core retreat joined forces with the 2025 Science Symposium of the Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences (C-TNBS) on September 18^th. During the retreat in the Deichmann Auditorium at the University Hospital Essen, members of the core presented their dissertation projects as a digital poster, followed by a discussion within the whole group. The creativity of all posters was very inspiring and entertaining, the presentations of the MD/PhD projects were clear and informative, sparking valuable peer-to-peer feedback.

After this intense exchange of scientific information, the C-TNBS Symposium kicked-off officially with a keynote lecture by Prof. Jörg Schulz, Clinic for Neurology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen on the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, focusing on obstacles and opportunities. Over the day, additional lecture sessions followed, sharing the latest insights on a wide array of C-TNBS topics with the symposium’s participants, whereas during the coffee breaks, all BIOME candidates again presented their dissertation projects, this time in a printed format, to the audience. The retreat ended with the BIOME doctoral members joining the C-TNBS’s networking “get together“ and symposium dinner.