Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz

Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz is a molecular oncologist and virologist, a professor of molecular oncology and medical director of the Department of Applied Tumor Biology at the Institute of Pathology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg. He also heads a Clinical Cooperation at the German Cancer Research Center.

Knebel Doeberitz has published over 300 research papers about viral and molecular carcinogenesis, early detection and prevention of cancer, novel prevention, and therapeutic concepts and tumor immunology.

Knebel Doeberitz received the Ernst von Leyden award in 1998, the Christoph-Wilhelm Hufeland award in 2000, the Distinguished Service Award for Cervical Cancer in 2006, and the Felix Burda award in 2015.

Education Knebel Doeberitz received his early academic education from the medical schools at Ghent in Belgium and then moved to Germany to study in the medical schools of Hamburg, Freiburg, and Kiel.

Research Knebel Doeberitz's major scientific interests relate to mechanisms of human carcinogenesis by papillomaviruses and DNA mismatch repair deficiency, the identification of novel diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets as well as their clinical validation and translation into routine medical care.

In 1997, Knebel Doeberitz discovered that a cellular protein referred to as p16INK4a, is uniformly overexpressed in HPV-transformed cells and could be used as diagnostic tool to improve the early detection of cervical and other papillomavirus associated cancers. This work led to the development of the CINtec® product series at mtm-laboratories AG, a spin off company of the German Cancer Research Center co-founded by Knebel Doeberitz and later acquired by Roche.

DNA mismatch repair deficient cancers and Lynch syndrome Knebel Doeberitz and his research team pioneered the role of insertion and deletion mutations (InDels) in cancers that arise via the loss of DNA-mismatch repair functions that are also referred to as microsatellite instable cancers (MSI+). He was the first to show that patients develop specific immune responses to altered proteins encoded by the genes affected by these InDels and demonstrated that MSI cancers in particular patients affected by the Lynch syndrome predominantly develop via immune evasion mechanisms. Based on these findings, Knebel Doeberitz and his team develops vaccination strategies against hereditary cancer syndromes like Lynch.

Awards and honors 1998 - Ernst von Leyden Award for Cancer - Early Detection and Prevention 2000 - Christoph-Wilhelm Hufeland Award for Cancer - Early Detection and Prevention 2006 - Distinguished Service Award of Cervical Cancer, Eurogin Congress 2015 - Felix Burda Award