Juggling research and hospital work

There’s plenty to do at the University of Münster even out of termtime. Members of the Communication and Public Relations team take advantage of the non-teaching period to get out of the office and spend a day accompanying university staff who literally spend their time “out and about”.

Somewhat out of breath, junior professor Dr Philipp Backhaus arrives at the Department of Nuclear Medicine on level three of the East Tower of University Hospital Münster (UKM). “When your daughter suddenly decides on the way to nursery that she doesn’t want to ride her bike any more, timing can easily get quite tight,” he explains apologetically. All the same, he has made it just in time for the daily 8 am meeting. As a clinician scientist, Philipp Backhaus doesn’t attend every morning, as he splits his time between research at the European Institute for Molecular Imaging (EIMI) and working at the hospital, devoting two and a half days to each job. Though he admits that it is something of an organisational balancing act, Philipp Backhaus believes it is vitally important in order to achieve innovation and medical progress.

Once the meeting is over, he looks through and replies to e-mails in his office – albeit with frequent interruptions: the mobile phone nestled in the breast pocket of his white coat buzzes every few minutes. “I can’t manage without it. This August I took over as head of diagnostics at the Department of Nuclear Medicine, a role that requires me to take lots of decisions,” he explains. This particular morning, he receives a call requesting him to approve some radiotracer production protocols. Low-dose radioactive tracers are substances used in nuclear medicine to diagnose medical conditions in patients. Administered either orally or intravenously, different types of tracer travel around the body to detect conditions such as tumours or heart disease. “Ideally, I will set off right away so that neither my colleagues nor the patient have to wait,” the doctor explains. He walks briskly through the corridors of UKM. Once he reaches the controlled radiation area where the imaging actually takes place, he carefully checks the production release protocols, signs them and discusses them briefly with the team. Since he can potentially come into contact with radioactive substances in this area, he has to perform a contamination check, in line with the Radiation Protection Act, before being cleared to leave. Ten seconds later he gets the green light – no contamination detected.

Back in the office, a medical student is already waiting. She wants to begin a dissertation project in Philipp Backhaus’s team. The two spend about half an hour discussing her goals, the questions she wishes to address and the methodology she plans to apply. She will be able to get started at the end of September. The next job for senior physician Backhaus is to get ready for his next appointment, a discussion of PET results. Short for positron emission tomography, PET is an imaging technique that uses a highly sensitive camera to visualise the distribution of radioactive tracers in the body for diagnostic purposes. Philipp Backhaus analyses a number of patient images before discussing them with his team. “Medical imaging is advancing at an extremely rapid pace. For example, we can now recognise tumour cells much earlier and more accurately and develop tailored treatment,” the nuclear medicine specialist explains. At 11 am he meets his assistant doctors to assess the images more precisely and to discuss the findings and the action to be taken next. One particular case requires a somewhat lengthier consultation. The patient in question has a brain tumour. Philipp Backhaus instructs his colleague to compare the latest images once again with earlier findings and data.

A meeting of senior physicians follows almost immediately at 11.30 am. Today, it is mainly internal processes and matters such as personnel planning, budgetary issues and new equipment that are on the agenda. 36-year-old Backhaus spends his lunch break eating a roll in front of his computer. “I know it’s not ideal, but I often don’t have time for a proper break,” he concedes. Afterwards he jumps on his bike to ride the short distance to the EIMI, which is barely 500 metres away as the crow flies. At least this gives him a little bit of exercise and fresh air.

His working group “Imaging Host Responses” is based on the ground floor of the Multiscale Imaging Centre and began its work in August – at the same time that Philipp Backhaus was appointed junior professor. Being a tenure-track professorship, this means he will become a full professor at the university once he has completed a six-year probationary period. “It’s an exciting time for me, and I’m delighted to now have the chance to set up my own working group here at the EIMI, where I have been researching since 2017,” he enthuses. One planned experiment had to be postponed at short notice because a key member of the team had been ill. Backhaus knows these things can happen and that not everything can be planned. It’s the same in both research and the hospital.

There is enough to do nonetheless. “At the institute I’m able to concentrate on my research. Only rarely do my colleagues from the hospital get in touch,” reports Philipp Backhaus. There are occasional exceptions to this rule – though not today. He says that doctors cannot take it for granted that they will be given such freedom to do research. The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Münster and UKM run a Clinician Scientist programme to support this dual role at all career stages.

During a flying visit to the S2 lab, where genetic engineering work is done, Philipp Backhaus checks some of the equipment that will be needed for experiments over the next few days. He also has a brief chat with his colleague Dr Cristina Barca Romero, who is preparing cell cultures for a planned trial. Shortly afterwards, the two meet the rest of his team, as they do every Monday afternoon. The interdisciplinary group comprises doctors, biologists, chemists and physicists. Philipp Backhaus stresses that transdisciplinary exchange is essential in order to understand molecular processes in organisms, tissue and cells and be able to develop therapies.

In the late afternoon, Backhaus – who is originally from Paderborn – hops onto his bike again and cycles home to his family in Aaseestadt. Just now, he and his wife live with their six children on something of a building site. “We are renovating our house and doing much of the work ourselves.” As well as tearing down the chimney, they are knocking through some of the walls. “That’s my exercise for the day,” grins Philipp Backhaus. The family has already experienced some interesting times together – like when Philipp Backhaus was working as a clinical fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York two years ago. “We spent a year living with our at that time five children in a very cramped apartment in Manhattan,” he recalls. In the evenings, once the children are in bed at home, it is not unusual for him to set off back to the institute, as “I simply don’t always have time to get everything done during the day”. Though Philipp Backhaus may sometimes get out of breath, he seems to be pretty good at juggling the demands of the hospital, research and family life.

Author: Kathrin Kottke
Translation: from German by Chris Cave

Further information

• European Institute for Molecular Imaging (EIMI)
• Clinician Scientist Programme of the University of Münster and University Hospital Münster
• Department of Nuclear Medicine (UKM)