MLP Medical Excellence Award for Karim El-Marouk

The scholarship is intended for medical and dental students at German universities who are already in the clinical phase of their studies. It is one of the largest and most prestigious funding programs for medical students in Germany. Karim El-Marouk received the award for his scientific and experimental work on modulating the tumor microenvironment with the aim of improving the efficacy of immunotherapies.

El-Marouk is currently completing his clinical rotation as part of his medical studies in Switzerland and is also a doctoral candidate in the Department of Radiation Therapy and Radiooncology at LMU Medical Center. There, he is writing his dissertation on the topic “Multimodal treatment of patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using chemoradiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibition”. El-Marouk conducted the work now being honored during a research year at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, which he completed as part of his doctoral studies.
The medical student is one of twelve recipients of the MLP Medical Excellence Awards, selected from more than 150 finalists from across Germany. The award is presented in three categories—for outstanding academic achievement, social engagement, and medical-scientific achievements—and is endowed with 4,000 euros in each category. The program is organized by the financial services provider MLP, headquartered in Wiesloch near Heidelberg.