Prof. Sonja Loges studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Hamburg where she received her PhD in 2004. She also studied medicine at the University Medical Centre Hamburg and graduated as MD in 2005. Sonja Loges performed her postdoctoral research 2007-2010 in the lab of Prof. Peter Carmeliet at VIB-KU Leuven, Belgium focusing on tumour-microenvironment interactions and angiogenesis. Thereafter she returned to the University Medical Centre in Hamburg and obtained funding by the German Cancer Aid for her independent group in the Max-Eder programme. She completed her residency and board exams in haematology, oncology and internal medicine and became senior physician in 2015. She was leading the thoracic oncology and precision oncology programmes in Hamburg and became full Professor funded by the Heisenberg programme of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 2016. In 2018 she received an ERC Starting Grant focused on MRD elimination in solid and haematologic malignancies.

In 2020 Sonja Loges was appointed as director of the DKFZ-Hector Cancer Institute and Chair of the Department for Personalised Oncology, University Medical Centre Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, as well as head of the Division of Personalised Medical Oncology at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. In 2021 she additionally took over the position of Scientific Director of the newly founded Mannheim Cancer Centre (MCC) in Mannheim. In precision- and thoracic oncology, she is conducting phase I-III clinical trials and coordinating circular translational research programmes with a focus on targeted therapies and liquid biopsies with the goal of overcoming resistance and providing personalised treatment to patients.