Endowed chair at the German Cancer Research Centre commences work thanks to a one-million Euro donation from CTS EVENTIM

Heidelberg/Munich, 1 October 2017. The German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungsinstitut, DKFZ) has created an endowed Chair in Chromatin Networks with the University of Heidelberg. PD Karsten Rippe, a biophysicist, will take up the Chair and will lead this department of the DKFZ. The new professorship is funded by CTS EVENTIM, one of the world’s leading providers of ticketing services and live entertainment. The company is providing the sum of one million Euro – the highest sum it has ever donated.

Karsten Rippe commented by saying, “I am delighted that the DKFZ and the University of Heidelberg have placed their trust in me. My special thanks are extended to the remarkable commitment shown by CTS EVENTIM. This generous support enables us to conduct basic research, the findings of which will hopefully benefit many cancer patients in the form of personalised therapy.”

Rippe and his team want to glean the maximum amount of information from tumour samples, using automated analysis of thousands of cells. Due to the fact that cancer cells differ in many characteristics from one tumour to another, doctors in the future shall be enabled to adapt cancer drugs in such a way that no cancer cell can escape treatment.
Scientists already use sequential analyses to read out the entire DNA of tumours. However, the method has its limitations – every tumour sample contains a mixture of tens of thousands of cells, including different kinds of cancer cells and healthy cells. Important information about the characteristics and differences between different tumour cells are obscured as a result. That is the reason why Karsten Rippe is now focusing on analysing thousands of individual cells from each tumour.

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS EVENTIM, who has already been involved for many years in the Advisory Council of the DKFZ, added that “Fighting cancer is still one of the greatest challenges we face, even in this age of the knowledge society. We therefore want to do what we can to support Mr Rippe and his team in this important work. Supporting cutting-edge research in Germany is also close to our heart. With its enormous expertise and many years of experience, the DKFZ is the best possible partner for us in both these endeavours.”

Prof. Dr. Josef Puchta, Administrative and Commercial Director of the German Cancer Research Centre, thanked CTS EVENTIM by noting, “The more complex the research, the more expensive it becomes. Publicly funded research is therefore dependent more than ever before on support from private-sector donors. The acquisition of funds is not as widespread here in Germany, unfortunately, as it is in the USA, for example. I wish that the wonderful example set by CTS EVENTIM will be emulated by very many others”.

The fight against cancer is one of the key areas of social engagement on the part of CTS EVENTIM. As recently as yesterday, Saturday, the company donated a further 10,000 Euro to the German Cancer Aid associated at the ZDF Television Charity Gala “Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel”.


About CTS EVENTIM
CTS EVENTIM is one of the leading international providers of ticketing services and live entertainment. More than 150 million tickets for over 200,000 events are marketed annually using the company’s systems – be it through stationary box offices, online or from mobile devices. Its online portals operate under brands such as eventim.de, oeticket.com, ticketcorner.ch, ticketone.it and entradas.com. The EVENTIM Group also includes many concert, tour and festival promoter companies for events like “Rock am Ring”, “Rock im Park”, “Hurricane” and “Southside”. Some of Europe’s most renowned venues are operated by CTS EVENTIM, for example the LANXESS arena in Cologne, the Waldbühne in Berlin and the EVENTIM Apollo in London. CTS EVENTIM AG & Co. KGaA (ISIN DE 0005470306) has been listed on the stock exchange since 2000 and is currently a member of the MDAX segment. In 2016, its 2,384-strong workforce generated a total of 830 million Euro in revenues in 25 countries.

About the Germany Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ)
The German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) with its more than 3,000 employees is the largest biomedical research institute in Germany. At DKFZ, more than 1,000 scientists investigate how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors and endeavour to find new strategies to prevent people from getting cancer. They develop novel approaches to make tumour diagnosis more precise and treatment of cancer patients more successful. The staff of the Cancer Information Service (KID) offers information about the widespread disease of cancer for patients, their families, and the general public. Jointly with Heidelberg University Hospital, DKFZ has established the National Center for Tumour Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, where promising approaches from cancer research are translated into the clinic. In the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), one of six German Centres for Health Research, DKFZ maintains translational centres at seven university partnering sites. Combining excellent university hospitals with high-profile research at a Helmholtz Centre is an important contribution to improving the chances of cancer patients. DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres, with ninety percent of its funding coming from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the remaining ten percent from the State of Baden-Württemberg.