Servicenavigation

Project Details

Back

Projekt Print View

SFB 1389:  Understanding and Targeting Resistance in Glioblastoma (UNITE Glioblastoma)

Subject Area Medicine
Term since 2019
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 404521405
 
UNITE is driven by the strong vision that glioblastoma is treatable contrasting the fatalistic approach generally taken. Three key achievements from the first funding period stood out. UNITE researchers decisively shaped the concept of “cancer neuroscience” by defining key principles of cellular communications between glioblastoma cells but also between glioblastoma and host cells through tumor microtubes and bona fide synapses forming a network that fundamentally shapes biology and response to therapy. The discovery of this entirely new biological principle has already sparked a first clinical trial in patients with glioblastoma employing compounds disrupting such networks and breaking treatment resistance. UNITE researchers have developed a vaccine targeting mutated isocitrate dehydrogenase in gliomas successfully tested in a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial following preclinical work demonstrating that this disease-defining mutation is a clonal neoepitope capable of generating mutation-specific T cell responses. UNITE researchers have developed and validated machine-learning tools to identify MRI imaging biomarkers of treatment response and outcome in large patient cohorts. Such tools are being transferred in daily clinical practice and decisively shape decision making in neurooncology. With the work of the first funding period in science and for talent development in the UNITE School of Neurooncology, which exceeded the premise of at least 50% female fellows, a further increase in the number of female PIs and PIs with a UNITE-related career development and further strategic appointments at MFHD/MFMA related to UNITE the Heidelberg campus and the selected partners have become even more suitable to tackle these challenges. The UNITE work packages of the second funding period will focus on unraveling mechanisms of intrinsic resistance with a stronger emphasis on the implications of hierarchically organized glioblastoma networks, neuronal-glioblastoma cell interaction and reverse translation from clinical trial information gathered in the first funding period; mechanisms of resistance conferred by the microenvironment integrating molecularly diverse glioblastoma entities and external treatment factors that shape the glioblastoma milieu; and develop, apply, and share state-of the art technological innovation with a focus on the integration of clinical and preclinical MR imaging, novel high-throughput technologies benefitting from the recent developments in functional phosphoproteomics, preclinical models, and analytical tools.
DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

Completed projects

Participating University Hochschule Mannheim; Universität Augsburg
Participating Institution Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)
 
 

Additional Information

© 2024 DFG Disclaimer / Copyright / Privacy Policy

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung