Ruth Wellenreuther

Alliance Manager & Project Coordinator at DKFZ Heidelberg

Dr. Wellenreuther is manager of the strategic alliance between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and Bayer HealthCare. She is a biologist by training and holds a PhD in molecular genetics from the Friedrich-Wilhelms university Bonn. In 1998, she joined the DKFZ where she worked in the division of Molecular Genome Analysis (head: Prof. Annemarie Poustka) as a PostDoc and lateron group leader until 2005. From 2005 to 2007 she became involved in science management, at the beginning in part-time beside her scientific duties, and from 2007 onwards as a full-time science manager, reporting to the management board of the DKFZ. In particular, she coordinated strategic activities in the area of translational research and pharma cooperations. Since 2009, her responsibilities are focused on the alliance management of the growing DKFZ-Bayer collaboration activities.


Managing an Academia-Industry Alliance? A Challenge Between The Worlds

I am working as an alliance manager for a strategic partnership between a large research institution and a pharmaceutical company. In my talk, I will give a brief overview on the structure of this partnership and my tasks and responsibilities therein. I will briefly outline how my career path to this position was, and which major challenges I face in my job. Finally, I will summarize what I like about my job, and the pros and cons of it with respect to work-family balance.

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