Editorial Team

The management of our journal is a collaborative endeavor by the whole editorial team, featuring an active, widely respected, diverse, and representative Editorial Board. The editorial structure of the journal is listed as below and the roles and responsibilities of the editorial team are available at: https://www.amegroups.com/pages/journal-management#content-title.

Editor-in-Chief

Nanshan Zhong, MD

Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering. Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Executive Editor-in-Chief

Jianxing He, MD, FACS

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Associate Editors-in-Chief

Rongchang Chen, MD, PhD

Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University; Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou, China

Kian Fan Chung, MD, DSc, FRCP

National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK

Fayez Kheir, MD, MSc

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Chi Wan Koo，MD

Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

Zhigang Li, MD, PhD

Division of Thoracic Surgery; Esophageal Surgery Section, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai, China

Ravi Rajaram, MD, MSc, FACS

Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. USA

Associate Editors

Yousser Mohammad (GARD Section)

National Center for Research on Chronic Respiratory Diseases, Tishreen University; Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Al-Sham Private University, Damascus and Latakia, Syria

Editorial Co-Directors & Executive Editors

Guangqiao Zeng, MD

Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou, China

Stephen D Wang

AME Publishing Company, Hong Kong, China

Editorial Board (Cardiac Surgery)

Jason Ali, MA, MB, BChir, MA (Med Ed), PhD, MRCS

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Michele Di Mauro, MD, PhD

SS Annunziata Hospital, University “G D’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Giuseppe Francesco Maria D’Ancona, MD, PhD

Cardiovascular Clinical Research Unit, Vivantes Klinikum Urban and Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany; University Herzzentrum Rostock, Germany

Giuseppe Gatti, MD

Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Department, Division of Cardiac Surgery, of the Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste, Italy

Mario F. L. Gaudino, MD, FECTS

Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA

Kendra J. Grubb, MD, MHA, FACC

Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Emory University, Atlanta AG, USA

Nicholas T. Kouchoukos, MD

Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Missouri Baptist Medical Center, St Louis, MO, USA

Christopher Lau, MD

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA

Natalie S. Lui, MD, MAS

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, USA

Antonio Miceli, MD, PhD

Department of Cardiac and Great Vessels Surgery, Istituto Clinico Sant’Ambrogio, Gruppo Ospedaliero San Donato, Milano, Italy

Raghav A. Murthy, MD, DABS, FACS, FACC

Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA

Kazuma Okamoto, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Surgery, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan

Francesco Pollari, MD, PhD

Department of Cardiac surgery, Klinikum Nürnberg – Paracelsus Medical University, Nuremberg, Germany

Ulrik Sartipy, MD PhD

Heart and Vascular Theme, Karolinska University Hospital and Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Jan D. Schmitto, MD, PhD, MBA, FCCP, FRCS (Glasg.)

Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Suk-Won Song, MD, PhD

Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Hiroo Takayama, MD, PhD

Division of Cardiac, Vascular & Thoracic Surgery, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

Bryan A. Whitson, MD, PhD

Division of Cardiac Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA

Berhane Worku,MD

New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York, USA

Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, MD

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Falk Cardiovascular Research Center, Stanford, CA, USA

Editorial Board (Gastrointestinal Surgery)

Hon Chi Yip, M.B.ChB (Hons), FRCSEd (General Surgery), FHKAM (Surgery), FCSHK (General Surgery)

Division of Upper Gastrointestinal and Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Ian Wong

Division of Esophageal & Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery, Department of Surgery, School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Editorial Board (Respiratory Medicine)

Qingling Zhang, Chief physician, MD, PhD, Professor

State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital,Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China

Peter J. Barnes, DM, DSc, FRCP, FCCP, FMedSci, FRS

National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK

J. Patrick Barron, MD

Communications and Language International Communications Center, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan

Michael S. Blaiss, MD

Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA

Mario Cazzola, MD

Postgraduate School of Respiratory Medicine, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy

Edward D. Chan, MD

Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado, USA

Anne Chang, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, FAAHMS

Menzies School of Health Research, Australia

Alvaro A. Cruz

Centre of Excellence for Asthma, Federal University of Bahia School of Medicine, Brazil

Keertan Dheda, MBBCh (Wits), FCP, FCCP, PhD (Lond), FRCP (Lond)

Division of Pulmonology, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Peter V. Dicpinigaitis, MD

Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, NY, USA

Yoshinosuke Fukuchi, MD, PhD

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan

Esteban C. Gabazza, MD, PhD

Department of Immunology, Mie University Faculty and Graduate School of Medicine; Mie University Center for Intractable Diseases, Mie, Japan

Laurent Guilleminault, MD, PhD

University Hospital Centre of Toulouse, Toulouse, France Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

Maida Hafiz, MD

Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Felix Herth, MD, PhD

Thoraxklinik, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Mary Sau Man Ip, MBBS(HK), MD(HK), FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow), FHKCP, FHKAM, FAPSR, FCCP

Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, HongKong, China

Richard S. Irwin, MD, Master FCCP

Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

Ki-Suck Jung, MD, PhD

Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University Medical College, Anyang, Gyunggi, South Korea

Fanny W.S. Ko

Dept. of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Martin Kolb, MD, PhD

Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, Department of Medicine, Division of Respirology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Kefang Lai, PhD, MD.

Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, State Key Lab. of Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China

Atul Malhotra, MD

Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

Stuart Mazzone, PhD

Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Doug McEvoy, MBBC, FRACP

Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia

Andrew McIvor, FRCP(C), FRCP(Edin), MRCP(UK), FACP, FCCP

Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Walter McNicholas, MD, FRCPI, FRCPC, FCCP (Sleep Section)

University College Dublin (UCD), St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Alyn H. Morice, MD

Centre for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research, Hull York Medical School, Hull, UK

Michael S. Niederman, MD

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA

Akio Niimi, MD, PhD

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan

Kenneth Nugent, MD

Department of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USA

Paul O’Byrne, MB, FRCP(C), FRSC

Department of Medicine, Michael G DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Roy A. Pleasants, PharmD

Pulmonary Division, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Pulmonary Department, Durham VA Medical Center, NC, USA;

David Price, M.B B.Chir, MA, DRCOG, FRCGP

Primary Care Respiratory Society UK, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

Klaus F. Rabe, MD, PhD

Christian Albrechts University Kiel, Center of Pulmonary Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Hospital Großhansdorf, Großhansdorf, Germany

Chin Kook Rhee, MD, PhD

Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital of The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Imran Satia, MD, PhD

Department of Medicine, Division of Respirology, McMaster University (from 1st of April 2020), Hamilton, Canada Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Woo-Jung Song, MD, PhD (Cough Section)

Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Martin R. Stampfli

Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster Immunology Research Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Joerg S. Steier, MD, PhD, FRCP

Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK; Lane Fox Unit/Sleep Disorders Centre, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

Luis Taborda-Barata, MD, PhD (WHO-GARD Section)

Faculty of Health Sciences, and CICS-Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; Department of Immunoallergology, Cova da Beira Hospital Centre, Covilhã, Portugal; UBIAir-Clinical & Experimental Lung Centre, UBIMedical, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

Marie Carmen Valenza, PT, MSc, PhD

Physiotherapy Department, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

Gang Wang, MD, PhD

West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Ian Yang, MBBS (Hons), PhD, FRACP, FAPSR, FThorSoc, Grad Dip Clin Epid

Thoracic Physician and Director of Thoracic Medicine, The Prince Charles Hospital; Professor, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Brendon Yee, MBChB, FRACP, PhD

Central Clinical School, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Chong-Jen Yu, MD, PhD

National Taiwan University College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei

Editorial Board (Thoracic Surgery)

Zaid Abdelsattar, MD, MS, FACS

Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA

Hiroyuki Adachi, MD, PhD

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan

Prasad S. Adusumilli

Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA; Center for Cell Engineering, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

Mara B. Antonoff, MD

Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

Mark F. Berry, MD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Amit Bhargava

Division of Thoracic and Foregut Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Servet Bölükbas

Department of Thoracic Surgery, University-Medical-Center Essen - Ruhrlandklinik, Essen, Germany

Edward Y. Chan, MD, FACS

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA

Subhasis Chatterjee, MD. FACS, FACC, FCCP

Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Pierfilippo Crucitti, MD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, Rome, Italy

Hiroyuki Daiko

Department of Esophageal Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Jonathan D’Cunha, MD, PhD

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Felix G. Fernandez, MD, MSc

Section of Thoracic Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

Hiran C. Fernando, MBBS, FRCS

Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Section of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery 3300 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA, USA

Victor Anthony Ferraris, MD, PhD

Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Kentucky and Lexington VA Medical Center, Lexington, Ky, USA

Pier Luigi Filosso, MD

Unit of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Torino, Torino, Italy

Domenico Galetta, MD, PhD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy

Michel Gonzalez, MD

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

Taichiro Goto, MD

Lung Cancer and Respiratory Disease Center, Head of the center, Yamanashi Central Hospital, Fujimi, Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan

Masatsugu Hamaji

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kyoto University Hospital, 54 Kawaharacho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan

Paul Hofman, MD, PhD

Université Côte d’Azur, CHU Nice, FHU OncoAge, Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Pasteur Hospital, Nice, France; Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, INSERM, IRCAN, FHU OncoAge, Team 4, Nice, France; Université Côte d’Azur, CHU Nice, FHU OncoAge, Hospital-Integrated Biobank, Nice, France

Hitoshi Igai, MD, PhD

Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Maebashi Red Cross Hospital, Gunma, Japan

Hisashi Iwata

Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Gifu University Hospital, Gifu, Japan

Dawn E. Jaroszewski, MD, MBA, FACS

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Marcelo F. Jimenez, MD, PhD

University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain; Department of Thoracic Surgery, Salamanca University Hospital, Salamanca, Spain

Dragana Jovanovic, MD, PhD

Thoracic Oncology and Palliative Medicine, Internal Medicine Clinic "Akta Medica", Belgrade, Serbia

Jae Y. Kim, MD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, City of Hope Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, USA

Daniel Kreisel, MD, PhD

Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo, USA

Jay M Lee, MD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Wenhua Liang, MD (Oncology)

Thoracic oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease & National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou, China

Jianqun Ma

Division of Esophageal and Mediastinal Surgery, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

Giuseppe Marulli, MD, PhD

Department of Cardiologic, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, Thoracic Surgery Unit, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Takuro Miyazaki, MD, PhD

Department Surgical Oncology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

Takahiro Nakajima, MD, PhD

Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Calvin S. H. Ng

Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, China

Ikenna C. Okereke, MD, FACS

Department of Surgery, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA

René Horsleben Petersen, MD PHD

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.

Camilla Poggi, MD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Rome "Sapienza," Rome, Italy

Eugenio Pompeo, MD

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy

Daniel P. Raymond, MD

Associate Professor of Surgery, Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

Norihisa Shigemura, MD, PhD

Cardiothoracic Transplant Division, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Alan D. L. Sihoe, MBBChir, MA(Cantab), FRCSEd(CTh), FCSHK, FHKAM, FCCP, FACS

Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital, Hong Kong, China

Shelby Stewart, MD

Department of Surgery, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

Hon Chi Suen, MBBS, FACS

Hong Kong Cardiothoracic Surgery Center, Hong Kong, China

Jeffrey B. Velotta, MD, FACS

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, CA, USA

Federico Venuta, MD

Department of Surgery “Paride Stefanini” - Thoracic Surgery Unit, Policlinico Umberto I, University of Rome SAPIENZA, Rome, Italy

Luca Voltolini, MD

Thoracic Surgery Unit, University Hospital of Careggi, Florence, Italy

Hao Wang, MD

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Benjamin Wei, MD

Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center, Birmingham VA Medical Center, Birmingham, AL, USA

Randolph H. L. Wong, MBChB, MRCS, FRCS, FCSHK, FHKAM(Surgery)

Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, China

Sai Yendamuri, MD, FACS

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York; Department of Surgery, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA

Editorial Board (Environmental Epidemiology)

Jicheng Gong, PhD

Assistant Professor College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

Editorial Board (Cardiology)

Adrian Baranchuk, MD, FACC, FRCPC, FCCS

Division of Cardiology, Kingston General Hospital, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

David M. Dudzinski, MD

Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Islam Y Elgendy, MD

Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Andreas Kalogeropoulos, MD, MPH, PhD

Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

Christos G Mihos

Columbia University Division of Cardiology, Mount Sinai Heart Institute, Miami Beach, FL, USA

Paulo Cury Rezende, MD, PhD

MASS Research Group, University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil

Editorial Board (Radiation Oncology)

Michael T. Milano, MD, PhD

Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA

Henry S. Park, MD, MPH

Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

Charles B. Simone, II, MD, FASTRO, FACRO

New York Proton Center, New York, NY, USA; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

Atsuya Takeda, MD, PhD

Radiation Oncology Center, Ofuna Chuo Hospital, Kamakura, Japan

Yi-Xiang Wang, MD

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HongKong SAR, China

Abraham J. Wu

Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA

Editorial Board (Interventional Pulmonology)

Roberto F. Casal, MD

Department of Pulmonary Medicine, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

Henri G. Colt, MD, FCCP

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA, USA

Sebastian Fernandez-Bussy, MD

Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

Masahide Oki, MD, PhD

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagoya Medical Center, Nagoya, Japan

Ali Sadoughi, MD

Division of Pulmonary, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, USA

Editorial Board (Pathology)

Andrew Churg, MD, PhD

Department of Pathology, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Kentaro Inamura, MD, PhD

Division of Pathology, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan

Anja C. Roden, MD

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN, USA

Editorial Board (Oncology)

Federico Cappuzzo, MD, PhD

Department of Oncology-Hematology, AUSL della Romagna, Ravenna, Italy

Petros Christopoulos, MD

Department of Medical Oncology, Thoraxklinik and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) at Heidelberg University Medical Center, Heidelberg, Germany