Head of Molecular Diagnostics and Therapy Program and the Molecular Tumour Board, Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University Munich, Germany
Dr Westphalen is a German physician who studied medicine and molecular biology in Hamburg and Philadelphia and gained extensive research experience in internationally renowned institutions in Philadelphia and New York.
Dr Westphalen completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Hamburg between 2008 and 2010. In 2010 he joined the laboratory of Timothy C. Wang at Columbia University in New York City as a postdoctoral fellow / associate research scientist. His studies were focused on cellular plasticity and the origins of gastrointestinal malignancies.
After his postdoctoral training, he joined the department of hematology and oncology at the University of Munich in late 2013, where Dr Westphalen focused on clinical and translational research in pancreatic cancer and early phase clinical trials. Since 2017, he heads the Molecular Diagnostics and Therapy Program and the Molecular Tumour Board of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre at the University of Munich. Furthermore, he serves as the medical lead for early phase clinical trials in medical oncology.
In 2018, he joined the ESMO Translational Research and Precision Medicine Working Group He has received research support from the German Research Foundation, the Universities of Hamburg and Munich and young investigator awards from the AACR and GRG/AGA. Dr Westphalen has authored and co-authored more than fifty research papers and serves as a reviewer for various international journals.