Kim Melanie Kraus

Short CV

Kim Kraus studied physics and medicine at the University of Giessen and Heidelberg. She received a PhD in physics and a doctorate in medicine at the University of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in 2014 and 2018. From 2014 until 2017, she conducted her post-doctoral research in medical physics in radiation therapy at the DKFZ. 2019, she started her clinical training at the department of Radiation Oncology at the University hospital of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). 2021, she received a clinician scientist research fellowship by the Consortium for clinical research of the School of Medicine of TUM. Since 2021, she joined the team of PD Dr. Stefan Bartzsch and together, they are working on the clinical translation of Microbeam radiation therapy.

Selected Awards

• 2022, “Young Scientists IO” Award, Bristol Myers Squibb Stiftung Immunonkologie, Title: Lung Toxicity after Combined Thoracic Stereotactic Radioimmunotherapy with Checkpointinhibition -  Do we need Radiation Dose Adaptation?
• 2023, DEGRO Innovation Prize

Research Interests

Kim Kraus’ research focuses on combined stereotactic lung radioimmunotherapy as well as microbeam radiation therapy. Her main clinical interest lies in the analysis and reduction side effects caused by high precision lung cancer treatment with and without combination with immunotherapy using machine learning and toxicity models. A highly innovative and future clinical approach for toxicity reduction can be Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT). Together with the research group of Stefan Bartzsch, they combine cutting-edge medical and engineering expertise to translate MRT to a compact bench-top size source that can operate in any hospital. Thus, we aim to substantially improve cancer care in radiation oncology. Kim Kraus focuses on dose calculation and treatment planning for MRT.

• Microbeam Radiation Therapy
• Lung cancer
• Stereotactic body radiotherapy and reduction of toxicity
• Machine learning and model based prediction
• Motion management

Selected Publications

• Kraus, K.M., Bauer, C., Feuerecker, B., Fischer, J.C., Borm, K.J., Bernhardt, D., Combs, S.E. Pneumonitis after Stereotactic Thoracic Radioimmunotherapy with Checkpoint Inhibitors: Exploration of the Dose–Volume–Effect Correlation. Cancers 2022, 14, 2948. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14122948.
• Kraus K.M., Winter J, Zhang Y, Ahmed M, Combs SE, Wilkens JJ, et al. Treatment Planning Study for Microbeam Radiotherapy Using Clinical Patient Data. Cancers 2022;14:685. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14030685.
• Kraus K.M., Simonetto C, Kundrát P, Waitz V, Borm KJ, Combs SE. Potential Morbidity Reduction for Lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Using Respiratory Gating. Cancers 2021, 13, 5092. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13205092.
• Kraus K.M., Fischer JC, Borm KJ, Vogel MME, Pigorsch SU, Devečka M, et al. Evaluation of practical experiences of German speaking radiation oncologists in combining radiation therapy with checkpoint blockade. Sci Rep 2021;11:7624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86863-2.
• Kraus K.M., Oechsner M, Wilkens JJ, Kessel KA, Münch S, Combs SE. Patient individual phase gating for stereotactic radiation therapy of early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sci Rep 2021;11:5870. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85031-w.