News

Michael Platten is one of ten winners in the Life Sciences category and ultimately the winner of the Breakthrough of the Year 2024 in the Life Sciences. Congratulations!!

The title "Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year" is awarded annually. It recognizes the most significant scientific breakthroughs in various categories of the Falling Walls Global Call. The Falling Walls Science Summit focused on topics such as artificial intelligence, renewable energies, quantum research and science diplomacy. The Berlin-based Falling Walls Foundation aims to bring together people who want to "break down the next walls in science and society". Since the first conference on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009, Falling Walls has developed into a constantly growing network of the most ambitious and forward-thinking minds from around the world.

Press release

Prof. Michael Platten took over the presidency of the European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO) at this year's congress in Glasgow. With over 700 members from more than 70 countries, it is one of the most important neuro-oncology societies in the world. Michael Platten will hold this honorable office for two years.

Press release

Congrats to Kyle!

Congrats to Tamara!

Niklas Graßl was awarded a Else Kröner Memorialstipend to support his work on clonal evolution in high-grade gliomas. Contragratulation! 

For his Cancer Cell publication „MHC class II-restricted antigen presentation is required to prevent dysfunction of cytotoxic T cells by blood-borne myeloids in brain tumors" Lukas Bunse was awarded the Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation publication award. The work presented in this paper opens new approaches that provide help in enabling endogenous immune cells to be activated toward combating tumor cells. 

Paper: doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2022.12.007

On April 15, neurologist Michael Platten was awarded the Paul Martini Prize 2024. He received the prize for the development of therapeutic vaccines against malignant brain tumors. The prize is awarded annually by the Paul Martini Foundation, Berlin, for outstanding achievements in clinical-therapeutic drug research.

Activated T cells that carry a certain marker protein on their surface are controlled by natural killer (NK) cells, another cell type of the immune system. In this way, the body presumably curbs destructive immune reactions. Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim (UMM) now discovered that NK cells can impair the effect of cancer therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in this way. They could also be responsible for the rapid decline of therapeutic CAR-T cells. Interventions in this mechanism could potentially improve the efficacy of these cellular cancer immunotherapies.

Press release

Making a personalised T cell therapy for cancer patients currently takes at least six months; scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim have shown that the laborious first step of identifying tumor-reactive T cell receptors for patients can be replaced with a machine learning classifier that halves this time.

Press release

Diffuse midline gliomas are higly aggressive primary central nervous system tumors in children and young adults that are characterized by the clonal driver mutation H3 K27M. Scientists and clinicians from the Platten lab have developed a peptide vaccine that sucessfully elicits tumor specific immune responses against this mutation in the majority of adult patients with relaps tumors. Since mutated peptides are presented on the surface of the tumor cells these findings stir up hope that diffuse midline glioma is amenable to immunotherapy with peptide vaccination. The peptide vaccine is now tested in the INTERCEPT H3 phase 1 clinical trial together with immune checkpoint inhibition in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse midline glioma.

Paper

Neuroligin 4 X-linked (NLGN4X) harbors a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A2-restricted tumor-associated antigen, overexpressed in human gliomas, that was found to induce specific cytotoxic T cell responses following multi-peptide vaccination in patients with newly- diagnosed glioblastoma.
Here we showed that, an HLA-A *02-restricted vaccine-induced T cell receptor specifically binding NLGN4X131-139 was applied for therapeutic use. Reactivity, cytotoxicity, and polyfunctionality of this NLGN4X-specific TCR is demonstrated in various cellular models. Intracerebroventricular administration of NLGN4X-TCR-T prolongs survival and leads to an objective response rate (ORR) of 44.4 % in experimental gliomas-bearing NSG MHC I/II KO mice compared to 0.0 % in control groups, respectively.
Concluding that NLGN4X-TCR-T demonstrates efficacy in a preclinical glioblastoma model. On a global scale, we provide first evidence for the therapeutic retrieval of vaccine-induced human TCRs for the off-the-shelf treatment of glioblastoma patients.

Paper

Twelve scientists who conduct research at the DKFZ or head joint bridging departments with the DKFZ made it to the very top in 2023: they are among the top one percent of the world's most cited researchers in their respective fields. Scientists whose work is cited particularly frequently by peers are considered to have above-average recognition in their field. The frequency of citations is therefore one of the most important measures of the influence and performance of individual researchers.

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Congratulations to Alice!

Congratulations to Jessica!
For insights into her PhD work, please check the paper on non-invasive T cell tracking.

Congratulations to Khwab!

Congratulations to Katharina!

Brain tumors are characterized by a distinct immunosuppressive microenvironment, leading to failure of novel immunotherapeutic approaches. Scientists from the team of Prof. Platten have now shown how the intratumoral antigen presentation via MHC class II can determine the fate and anti-tumor function of cytotoxic CD8 T cells in brain tumors. In patient material and preclinical models, the researchers showed that the immunosuppressive molecule Osteopontin is produced in large amounts in tumors absent of MHC class II and that restoration of the antigen presentation via MHC class II leads to reduced Osteopontin levels and thus restored CD8 T cell function.

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Lukas Bunse from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and the University Hospital Mannheim received the Hella Bühler prize that he was awarded with in 2019. The award is given out by Heidelberg University and is aimed at young researchers who have conducted studies from outstanding quality in the field of cancer research. The prize named after Dr. Hella Bühler comprises 100.000 € intended to supply the scientist's further research projects in this field.

Press relase link: https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/friends-supporters/highly-endowed-hella-buhler-prize-awarded

Cancer vaccines can support the body's own immune system to fight a tumor. Since mutations in tumor cells often lead to specifically altered proteins, a vaccine can boost the immune system to recognize such mutated proteins. Scientists and clinicians around Prof. Michael Platten and within the German Cancer Consortium DKTK and the German Neurooncology Working Group NOA for the first time have tested a mutation-specific vaccine targeting a glioma driver mutation in the IDH1 protein in malignant brain tumor patients in a phase 1 clinical study. They demonstrate not only safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine, but also show enhanced local immune reactions and IDH1 mutant-specific activated T cells within the tissue after vaccination. (Platten et al. Nature 2021 als link zu https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03363-z#citeas)

To press release als link zu https://www.dkfz.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2021/dkfz-pm-21-17-Impfung-gegen-mutiertes-Protein-erstmals-bei-Hirntumor-Patienten-geprueft.php (in German only)

Malignant brain tumors, such as glioblastomas are frequently resistant to immunotherapies. Scientists from Prof. Dr. Michael Platten's lab at the German Cancer Research Center and Mannheim University Hospital were able to identifiy a mechanism of restistance to immune checkpoint blockade in a mouse model of glioma. (Katrin Aslan, et al. Nature Communications, 2020)

to press release (in German only)

Nine researchers at dkfz are among the world's most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year. Michael Platten is included in this ranking of "Highly Cited Researchers" in the "cross-field" category.

to press release (in German only) 

Lukas Bunse from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and the University Hospital Mannheim receives this year's Swiss Bridge award. Bunse shares the award with a Swiss scientist. Both of them receive 250,000 Swiss francs for the implementation of their research projects.

to press release (in German only) 

With Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) allows researchers to tackle innovative, challenging, complex and long-term research undertakings through the coordination and concentration of individuals and resources within the applicant universities. The new CRC 1389 "Understanding and targeting resistance in glioblastoma – UNITEGLIOBLASTOMA" aims to develop concepts to predict and monitor treatment response and failure, and ultimately, to invent novel therapies for glioblastoma patients.

to press release (in German only) 

Prof. Dr. Michael Platten has been awarded the German Cancer Award 2019, one of the most prestigious distinctions in cancer medicine in Germany. Prof. Platten receives the award in the category Clinical Research for his work on immunotherapies for glioma, in particular for the discovery and development of a vaccine against IDH1 (isocitrate dehydrogenase 1), a common mutation found in low-grade gliomas. 

to press release (in German only)

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