Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research
- Functional and Structural Genomics
- KiTZ
Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Grünewald
Head of Division
The mission of the division of Translational Pediatric Sarcomas Research is to improve treatment options for children, adolescents and young adults affected by sarcomas. In addition, we explore less aggressive therapies and innovative strategies to overcome tumor drug resistance.
Our Research areas
To accomplish our mission, the division Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research is comprised of four highly synergistic teams:
The team Translational Genomics (Prof. Dr. Dr. T. Grünewald & Dr. Dr. Jing Li) systematically establishes multi-dimensional omics-datasets of a large number of pediatric sarcomas and correlates molecular alterations with clinical data to identify new driver mutations, disease-relevant drug targets and prognostic/predictive biomarkers, and to create resources for hypothesis generation and functional validation for future projects.
The team Mechanisms of Cancer Progression (Dr. F. Cidre-Aranaz) aims at deconvoluting the multilayered process underlying cancer progression and metastasis. For this purpose, systems biology approaches based on multi-omics data and clinical information with functional in vitro and in vivo experiments are combined to identify treatable vulnerabilities in pediatric sarcomas that can prevent metastasis.
The team Innovative Therapies (Dr. S. Ohmura) is investigating potential therapeutic targets for pediatric sarcomas in preclinical models. The focus here lies in developing and testing new targeted therapy approaches, including immunotherapy, that enable more effective therapy with fewer side effects, especially for patients with chemo resistant tumors.
The team Oncogenic Signaling (Dr. M. Knott) focuses on exploring and therapeutically exploiting oncogenic transcriptional networks in fusion transcription factor (fTF)-driven malignancies. We combine cutting-edge genomic and epigenomic technologies to uncover neomorphic properties of fusion oncogenes and rewire oncogenic signaling pathways into safe and highly specific avenues for therapeutic targeting.