The 4000th eye tumour patient treated with protons at HZB
Overview: Number of patients treated with prontons at HZB from 1998 to 2020. © HZB/S. Kodalle
On 19 February 2021, the 4000th eye tumour patient received irradiation with protons, performed by a joint team from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The number of patients treated in 2020 remained at the previous year's level despite the more difficult corona conditions. The treatment in Berlin-Wannsee is only available for uveal melanomas of the eye. The proton accelerator at HZB is the only therapy site for this disease in Germany.
For more than 20 years, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have jointly offered irradiation of eye tumours with protons. For this purpose, the HZB operates a proton accelerator, while the medical care of patients is provided by the Charité.
"We congratulate the joint team on this great success and thank them for doing everything they could under the difficult pandemic conditions to maintain the operation of the life-saving eye tumour therapy," says Prof. Bernd Rech, spokesman for the scientific management of HZB.
500 to 600 people contract malignant uveal melanoma in Germany every year. In 97 percent of cases, the tumour can be completely destroyed by irradiation with protons. In most cases, not only the eye but also the vision can be preserved to a satisfactory degree. Radiation with protons is a particularly effective method: the energy of the proton beam can be adjusted in such a way that practically only the tumour receives the radiation, while the surrounding healthy tissue is spared.
- Nanosilver as an electrocatalyst for CO₂ reductionVia electrolysis, CO2 can be reduced to CO, a raw material for further chemical products such as fuels. Within the GreenQuest Project, an internation team led by HZB chemist Prashanth Menezes has now systematically investigated catalyst layers made of silver nanoparticles, varying both the size of the particles and their density. The best yield was achieved with nanoparticles with diameters of around 10 nm, which were loosely distributed. Furthermore, they demonstrated how the economic efficiency of the electrochemical cell can be enhanced by integrating an additional chemical reaction at the anode, enabling the simultaneous production of a valuable formic acid, hydrogen, and CO in one device.
- Spin waves inside a nano-oscillator imaged for the first timeFor the first time, researchers have directly imaged the magnetisation dynamics inside a spin Hall nano-oscillator — a nanoscale device that converts direct current into tunable microwave signals and is a promising building block for energy-efficient wireless communication and brain-inspired computing. A Swedish–German team led by the University of Gothenburg and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) achieved this using time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy at the MAXYMUS instrument at BESSY II. The results, now published in Advanced Materials, reveal spin-wave features that had escaped previous, indirect measurement techniques.
- Joint power instead of duplicate structures:Berlin’s research community is further advancing its research excellence by establishing a high-performance, cross-institutional infrastructure for data and AI. With a joint agreement signed on 18 September 2026, the Berlin University Alliance (BUA), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) are paving the way for a joint data science and AI centre in Berlin-Dahlem and Adlershof.