Benedikt Westphalen was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, where he studied medicine and molecular biology at the University of Hamburg and University of Pennsylvania, with clinical rotations at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the University of Bern. He received his MD in 2007 and completed his doctoral thesis in molecular biology at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg.

Following his residency in gastroenterology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, he completed postdoctoral training at Columbia University (2010-2013) in the Division of Digestive and Liver Disease under Timothy C. Wang investigating the role of certain types of cancer-initiating cells in the gastrointestinal tract.

In 2013, Westphalen joined LMU University Hospital Munich, where he established the Molecular Tumor Board in 2017 and currently serves as Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine (since 2023). He chairs the ESMO Precision Oncology and Taxonomy Committee (since 2024), serves on the ESMO Council (since 2026), and is a member of the EU Commission Cancer Mission Board. In Germany, he is a member of the steering committee of the National Decade Against Cancer and leads the European Cancer Hub Germany. He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles and established the PRECISE master’s (MSc) program in precision oncology at LMU University Munich with support from the German Cancer Aid.