News

Learning, networking, and sharing science in Sicily

From July 23 to 26, some of our ATLAS-students participated in the CIMT/NIBIT Summer School in Erice, Sicily (CIMT). The event brought together early career scientists and leading experts in cancer immunotherapy, creating an inspiring setting for scientific exchange and networking.

The programme featured presentations from leading scientists in the field, covering topics ranging from circulating tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment to mRNA based therapies. Our students also presented their own work in flash talks and poster sessions, receiving valuable feedback from peers and experts in the field.

Beyond the scientific programme, the informal atmosphere, especially during the mixed dinners with senior scientists and early career researchers, led to lively discussions about science, careers, and personal development.

The experience concluded with a few days exploring the beauty of Sicily, including Mount Etna and Taormina. A fitting reminder that, in both science and travel, taking the scenic route can sometimes lead to the most memorable discoveries.

Completion of the 4th ATLAS Call

Our 4th ATLAS call for PhD candidates has come to an end. Over 550 candidates out of 48 countries applied for this year’s 4 ATLAS PhD projects. The 9 final candidates visited us at our on-site interview days at the BioNTech city site in Mainz. During these exciting two days, they met scientists, team members, visited the laboratories and were able to learn about the projects and research atmosphere in the ATLAS community.

We thank all participants, scientists and our task force for making this event a great success and we are already looking forward for the upcoming ATLAS call in fall 2026!

Greetings from Dallas – My Lab Exchange at UT Southwestern Medical Center

For just over a month now, I’ve been in Dallas, Texas, for a two-month lab exchange at UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in the context of the ATLAS PhD-program. Here, I’m working on an exciting project involving isotope tracing of metabolites—a method we haven’t used at TRON yet, and one that is really advancing my research.

This exchange is not only a fantastic professional opportunity but also a personally enriching experience. The team here is incredibly open and supportive, and I’m learning a lot—both in the lab and beyond.

Despite the constant 30 to 40°C, I’ve made sure to experience some Texan culture: I’ve been to a baseball game, watched a real rodeo, and of course, enjoyed some authentic Texas BBQ. I’m loving the variety and hospitality here!

I’m looking forward to the remaining time in Dallas and am excited to bring back new ideas and inspiration for my PhD project!

I would like to thank TRON and UT Southwestern for giving me this great opportunity for my stay.

Janina Freitag, PhD student at TRON

Snakemake Hackathon CERN 2025

From March 10 to 14, 2025, the Snakemake Hackathon took place at the prestigious European Particle Physics Laboratory CERN (Geneva, Switzerland). Our 3 ATLAS PhD students Matthias, Johannes and Luis from the Bioinformatic Department at TRON did not miss this great opportunity.

Together with the other participants, they worked intensively on improvements and new features for Snakemake. Snakemake is an open-source workflow manager that is becoming increasingly popular in bioinformatics, physics and many other fields and is also being used more and more at TRON. It enables the efficient and reproducible linking of different programs - both locally, on powerful servers and in the cloud.

Some of the bug fixes and suggestions for improvement proposed by our students were integrated directly into the Snakemake code - a great success of which they can be justifiably proud.

A special highlight was the guided tour through the antimatter factory at CERN and the inspiring exchange with researchers from different disciplines.

A big thank you to Johannes Köster and the whole team for the fantastic organization!

Our students presented their work on the 12th PhD Retreat

On October 10th  and 11th over 100 members of the ATLAS community spend two exciting days on our annual PhD retreat in the Crowne Plaza Conference Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. Our PhD students presented their research findings in exciting talks and used the opportunity to discuss their projects with their ATLAS peers and supervisors from BioNTech and TRON.

After enjoying a delicious dinner at our social evening event, our students proofed to not only excel in science but also when it comes to trivia when they fought, together with their supervisors, in an entertaining battle for the first price at our pub quiz.

Mainz as a hub for biotechnologies and lifescience...

... and we at ATLAS are in the focus. Rhineland-Palatinate and its state capital Mainz are not only a great place to live, they also offer excellent career opportunities #biomindz. In addition to the university, many successful companies and start-ups are also based here. We are delighted that our young scientist Iris Lade, who has been working on her doctoral thesis at TRON since 2023 as part of the ATLAS Translational PhD program, was able to work on this image film and answer questions about biotechnology, education and Mainz as a location.

Winner of Science Slam 2024 - Matthias Peter

Science communication is important, especially for people who are not natural scientists! But how do you communicate this highly complex specialist knowledge to a wide audience? By presenting it in a short, concise and fun way. Our PhD student Matthias Peters, who has been working on his doctorate in the Bioinformatics Department at TRON since 2023, is particularly talented at this:

He participated in the Science Slam in Mainz, which this time took place as the opening event of the Curious Future Insight Conference 2024. At the Science Slam, scientists present their work to an audience of non-experts, who then choose the winner at the end. Matthias spoke about adaptive T-cell immunity and its use in new personalized cancer therapies. And he did so well that he was chosen by the audience as the evening's slam winner despite this being his first time attending. Our warmest congratulations to him.

OUR PhD STUDENTS PRESENTING THEIR RESEARCH AT THE ANNUAL POSTER SESSION

On Tuesday, April 30th 2024, our ATLAS students met for their annual poster session at the Electoral Palace in Mainz. A total of 33 posters were prepared and presented in person. Ugur Sahin and 200 other colleagues from TRON and BioNTech took the opportunity to inform themselves about ongoing PhD research projects accompanied by lively discussions and valuable feedback for the students.

This year's awards for the best poster presentation go to TRON’s PhDs Iris Lade, Nina Tagscherer and Jennifer Neumaier. Congratulations to all of you.

A big thank you to all participants and the organisation team.

An introduction to the world of finance for PhD students

Tilo, research specialist at BioNTech and part-time financial consultant, gave an introduction to the world of finance, which was tailored to PhD students at BioNTech and TRON. He gave tips on four things he wished he knew before starting his career. Our students learned more about the financial system in Germany and we thank Tilo for his insights.

The call for applications is now closed

Please check out our website in autumn 2024 for more information about our next call for applications.

Our PhD students participating with a poster presentation in the 20th CIMT annual meeting

At this year’s #CIMT meeting in Mainz from 3rd to 5th May, ATLAS PhD students presented their work at the poster sessions and enjoyed experiencing the vibrant atmosphere of Europe’s Cancer #Immunotherapy community.

Peer presenting at the Transatlantic Coffee Talks (TACT)

Since 2020, BioNTech has established the tradition of the Transatlantic Coffee Talks (TACT). The fortnightly Transatlantic Coffee Talks combine 45 minutes of scientific talk from one (or more) subject areas with 15 minutes for questions and answers. By, for and with colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic, enabling them to network and learn from each other. This year, TACT expended its scope and reserved two slots for PhD students to present their research project to the international audience. We are proud that Peer did a great job at the premiere and gave an overview of his PhD project.

Aysegül Yildiz won the best poster prize

Our PhD student Aysegül Yildiz won the best poster prize at the 10th International mRNA Health Conference that took place in Boston from 8th-10th of November, 2022.