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The Research Training Group (RTG) will support young scientists on their way to scientific autonomy. This will be achieved through a structured graduate program with theoretical and practical education courses covering innovative methods to investigate the tumor secretome at the surface of cutting edge basic research and clinical patient care. The aim is to provide scientifically focused projects for the graduate students and at the same time mediate an overview that goes beyond individual projects through the overall context of the RTG.

The general structure of the curriculum reflects the three qualification and educational objectives regarding
(1) state of the art knowledge specifically on the tumor secretome and the RTG model disease (ovarian cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and pancreatic cancer),
(2) a basic education in scientific thinking, project planning and implementation of research projects to achieve a rapid research-related qualification and
(3) soft and interpersonal skills necessary for further career development in the academic environment or beyond in industry or society.

An important feature of the RTG qualification program is the trainee program with coordinated theoretical as well as practical courses. These courses cover omics, bioinformatics, imaging, in vitro cell culture models and mouse tumor models to enable the investigation of paracrine signaling between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment on an internationally high professional level.

In addition to our own workshops and seminars, the MARBURG University RESEARCH ACADEMY (MARA Homepage) offers a program for Doctoral Candidates that is specifically designed to support doctoral candidates in developing their skills during the time they are pursuing their doctorate. MARA workshops cover topics including rules of good scientific practice, scientific writing and presentation, curriculum in ethics in life science and negotiation skills (team management, leadership skills, and conflict resolution) to name a few.

In addition, each principal investigator of the RTG offers practical training modules for technical skills in his/her laboratory. This will assure the access of each student to all techniques and methods available in the groups of the RTG.

We provide one novel and obligatory module “What you should know about…” addressing the pathology of the model diseases in this RTG with a special focus on the role of the immune system in the cancer microenvironment and novel immunotherapies for the students of the RTG. This course will take place every 3 weeks during the semester. In addition to the transfer of knowledge, students will be encouraged to discuss the field critically and to transfer their knowledge of the specific topics or research questions on to their thesis.