Dr. Lars Zender

Lars Zender, M.D., is Professor of Medical Oncology and Director and Chairman of the Department of Medical Oncology and Pneumology at University Hospital Tuebingen,
Germany. He furthermore serves as the spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence iFIT (EXC2180) “Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies” and as the
managing director of the National Center for Tumor Diseases, partner site southwest (NCTSW).

Lars Zender’s scientific work focuses on the identification of novel therapeutic targets to overcome therapy resistance in solid tumors. He developed novel mosaic (chimaeric) liver cancer mouse models, which allow to conduct high throughput functional genomic analyses (shRNA- and Crispr/Cas screens) directly in vivo. He is co-founder of the Tübingen Center for Academic Drug Discovery and Development (TüCAD2), which conducts drug development projects for prioritized functionally identified therapeutic targets. To date, three small molecule drugs from the TüCAD2 pipeline went first-in-human.

Another key aspect in the scientific work of Lars Zender is his work on cellular senescence. The Zender laboratory is studying the senescence associated secretory phenotype and how senescent tumour cells and pre-cancerous cells are recognized and cleared by the immune system. Lars Zender received many prestigious prizes, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Cancer Award.