Kiel university researcher Carla Pieper awarded Mildred Scheel doctoral fellowship

Kiel university researcher Carla Pieper awarded Mildred Scheel doctoral fellowship

Carla Pieper, a doctoral researcher at the medical faculty of Kiel University and associated to P4 of the clinical research unit CATCH ALL (PIs Bastian and Das Gupta) at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, has been awarded the prestigious Mildred Scheel doctoral fellowship by the German Cancer Aid.

Pieper conducts her research at the Department of Internal Medicine II under the supervision of Professor Claudia Baldus. Her project focuses on the role of the cell of origin in shaping the behavior of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells during immunotherapy. In particular, she investigates the plasticity of specific ALL subtypes and how this may contribute to therapy resistance.

Bastian, Pieper, Das Gupta, Mildred Scheel doctoral fellowship — Carla Pieper, pictured with Dr. Lorenz Bastian (left) and Dr. Dennis Das Gupta, was awarded a Mildred Scheel doctoral fellowship where she investigates the role of various bone marrow cell types in a multilineage subtype of ALL as part of her funded PhD project, aiming to lay the foundations for future combination therapies.

The Mildred Scheel program supports early-career researchers with a monthly stipend, enabling them to concentrate fully on their scientific work within a defined research period. For Pieper, this creates the opportunity to further develop experimental models that mimic different stages of blood cell development and to analyze how these influence treatment response.

Her work is embedded in the interdisciplinary environment of CATCH ALL as well as the Kiel Oncology Network and the University Cancer Center Schleswig-Holstein. The findings are expected to contribute to a better understanding of disease biology and to inform future strategies for more effective and tailored immunotherapies.

CATCH ALL congratulates Carla Pieper on this achievement and looks forward to the insights that will emerge from her project.

The original press release can be found here (in German).