Medicine of the Future: Resilience, Modern Analytics, and Personalized Cancer Therapy
On August 21, 2026, the event “Leibniz Debates: Medicine of the Future” took place on the deck of the MS Wissenschaft, a ship featuring an interactive science exhibition. In front of an audience of about 80 guests, three scientists provided insights into research on resilience and prevention, modern analytics in diagnostics, and personalized cancer medicine.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Lieb, Scientific Director of the Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR) gGmbH, spoke on the topic “Prevention Instead of Repair – Why Resilience Will Shape the Medicine of the Future”. In his presentation, he explained the shift from reactive medicine to preventive medicine and its significance for our society. The future of medicine will focus more on prevention and early detection rather than on the treatment of diseases. Promoting resilience can play a central role in this context, as approximately one-third of adults in Germany suffer from a mental illness at least once in their lifetime, and this can contribute to the overall burden of disease. He presented the development of new health technologies as a key aspect of future resilience promotion. These technologies could detect stress reactions early on based on various biological and behavioral signals, combined with self-reports, and offer individualized support for stress management.
In his presentation titled “Detecting Diseases Earlier – How Modern Analytics Will Transform Medicine”, Prof. Dr. Albert Sickmann, Chairman of the Board of the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS) e. V., provided insights into the development and optimization of modern analytical technologies in health research. He noted that this is of particular importance for prevention, diagnostics, and personalized medicine in order to further advance precision medicine and improve patients’ quality of life. Professor Sickmann emphasized the already significant role of artificial intelligence (AI) in supporting the analysis of large datasets in this field—a role that will become even more crucial in the future.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Kindler, Director of the University Center for Tumor Diseases (UCT) at Mainz University Medical Center, spoke about personalized cancer treatment in his lecture titled “Targeted Cancer Treatment – Perspectives on Personalized Oncology”. Experience shows that not all cancer patients respond adequately to conventional therapies. Personalized therapies allow tumors to be treated more specifically. The study of tumor genetics plays a particularly important role in this context. In some cases, analyzing a tumor’s genetic makeup enables the development of personalized therapies. Professor Kindler presented a recent study on personalized vaccines for pancreatic cancer, which were administered after tumor removal, thereby significantly reducing the risk of recurrence.
The “Leibniz Health and Prevention” initiative was presented during the event. Through this initiative, the Leibniz Association is pooling its interdisciplinary expertise in the fields of health research, prevention, and early detection to develop innovative solutions to the health challenges of our time and to strengthen the transfer of scientific findings into practice.