Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmid

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmid is the Deputy Director and Head of Division “Radiobiology Group” of the radiobiology group. He holds a PhD in Biology and has more than 20 years of experience in radiobiology research.

His career started in 1989 with the study of biology at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Ten years later, in 1999, he obtained his Dr. rer. nat. (PhD) at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. As a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, he worked for two years at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Bradford, United Kingdom in the field of reproductive toxicology. After two years, he moved to the USA and worked at the University of California in Berkeley as a postdoc. Afterwards, he was employed for another three years working as a group leader and PI at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. During this time, he gained extensive biological knowledge in the radiobiology field, especially on the radioadaptive response and on low-dose radiation effects. In 2007, he moved back to Germany and started as a work group leader at the Radiooncology department of the Klinikum rechts der Isar, funded by the Cluster of Excellence (DFG) "Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP). The focus of his group was to explore the radiobiological aspects of laser-generated particle irradiation. Since 2015, he has worked as the Deputy Director & Head of Division “Radiobiology” group leader at the Institute of Radiation Medicine (former Institute of Innovative Radiotherapy) at the Helmholtz Munich.

The overall goal of his research group is to investigate the use of novel radiation modalities and applications for improving radiation therapy. His group is especially interested in the innovative Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT) and Minibeam Radiation Therapy (MBRT). Two novel, but still preclinical concepts in radiation therapy. The two main goals are the understanding of the underlying biomedical mechanisms and the clinical application of these new treatment modalities.

As an associate professor in radiobiology and experimental oncology, he is teaching students in the Master degree course in radiation biology, an interdisciplinary study covering all the relevant aspects of radiation. This includes molecular biology, genetics, cancer biology, immunology, radiation-induced early and late morbidities epidemiology, radiation physics, and dosimetry.