PhD

In July 2004, the Faculties of Medicine and Biology established a new joint international doctoral program. This program from the field of “immunotherapy” will be conducted for the first time in Mainz in English only, with a view to attracting top international early-career researchers. The program culminates in the award of the internationally recognized title “PhD”, rather than the “Dr. rer. nat.” title traditional in Germany. It is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to the tune of €1.6 million for material and personnel costs (scholarships). In addition, the Faculty of Medicine is contributing a further €700,000. This training program is intended for both natural scientists with diploma degrees and physicians.

In this program, research will focus on the development of new immunotherapies to treat cancer and chronic inflammatory processes. The program, therefore, has close links with the Collaborative Research Centers of the University Medical Center Mainz, which are focused on infectious diseases and immunology. In these participate working groups from the internal medical departments (Department of Internal Medicine I, Department of Internal Medicine III, Department of Dermatology), from the clinical institutes (Molecular Medicine), from the clinical theoretical institutes (immunology, virology, medical microbiology and hygiene) as well as from the Faculty of Biology (Institute of Molecular Biophysics and Institute of Zoology).

By means of this new concept, we have established a multidisciplinary training program that introduces scholarship recipients to clinical research through project work, intensive mentoring, courses, and training seminars. Our goal is to train outstanding early-career researchers for a limited period of time and to introduce them to clinical immunology and the work of the Collaborative Research Programs within the context of the University Medical Center’s focus on immunology. It is expected that the findings of the program will contribute in the long term to  improving treatment of allergies, infectious diseases and cancer.

No new doctoral candidates are being admitted to the program.

You can download the PhD regulations here. (Pdf-file, 180,1 KB)