Frank Winkler (born 1971) is a German neurologist and neuroscientist. He has been a professor at the Heidelberg University since 2012 and Managing Senior Physician at the Department of Neurology at Heidelberg University Hospital since 2016.
Life and academic career.
Frank Winkler grew up in Hamburg, where he attended the Wilhelm-Gymnasium. After graduating from high school, he studied human medicine at the University of Hamburg with stays in Freiburg, Cape Town and London at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
In 1999, he began his training at the Neurological Clinic, Großhadern Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. From 2002 to 2004, he completed a post-doctoral programme at Harvard University. During this time, he conducted research on the influence of the vascular system on brain tumours.
In 2012, he was appointed professor of Experimental Neuro-Oncology at the Department of Neurology in Heidelberg, where he has been senior physician since 2014. His Experimental Neuro-Oncology research group is based at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. His wife Eva Winkler is a specialist in haematology/oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital and a member of the German Ethics Council.
Research.
The laboratory led by Frank Winkler has used neuroscience methods to develop a new understanding of malignant adult brain tumours, glioblastomas and brain metastases. Key discoveries from this work have helped to establish the new field of cancer neuroscience research. These include malignant multicellular tumour networks that are highly functional and resilient and driven by developmental neurobiological factors, including pacemaker-like tumour cells in network nodes and excitatory synapses between brain neurons and various incurable brain tumour entities that drive brain tumour growth, invasion, and metastasis.
Frank Winkler has initiated clinical trials investigating how brain tumours in humans can be better controlled by disrupting neuro-cancer networks.