Project Details
Projekt
Coordination Funds
Applicant
Professor Dr. Volker Ellenrieder
Subject Area
Gastroenterology
Term
since 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426671079
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a major challenge in cancer medicine with a desperate need to develop better treatment strategies. In fact, despite significant research efforts, PDAC still displays the highest mortality rate among all solid tumors in mankind. Major causes for its devastating disease outcome are the exceptionally aggressive tumor biology and the remarkable resistance to conventional anti-tumor treatments. Both characteristics are mechanistically linked to a very high degree of tumor heterogeneity, which is reflected by recent identification of various molecular and phenotypic PDAC subtypes. Importantly, compelling evidence from translational studies further revealed that multiple subtype-specific features are mediated by disturbed genome dynamics — e.g., defects in genomic stability or altered chromatin regulation and transcription. Therefore, understanding how genome dynamics drive subtype-specificity in PDAC progression and resistance will provide unique and novel avenues to refine PDAC treatment strategies towards stratification-based precision medicine. The major goal of this Clinical Research Unit (CRU 5002) is to define the mechanisms, functional relevance and therapeutic potential of altered genome dynamics in selected PDAC subtypes. This initiative is built upon our longstanding expertise in PDAC research and genome dynamics, which represent scientific core areas of the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG). In addition, this CRU combines cutting-edge tumor models with distinguished clinical, scientific and translational expertise of the contributing principal investigators. The seven highly interlinked scientific projects of this CRU are directly supported by two essential core projects providing preclinical tumor models (e.g., patient-derived tumors and organoids), as well as platforms for sequencing technologies and biomedical informatics. In addition, this CRU will tremendously benefit from the expanding scientific and clinical infrastructure at the Göttingen Campus and will have unlimited access to a large amount of patient tumor material and corresponding clinical annotations received from the interdisciplinary Molecular Pancreatic Cancer Program (MolPAC) at the UMG. We anticipate that the scientific concept, selection and joint collaborations of outstanding scientists and clinicians, as well as the strategic integration of the CRU into the designated research focus at the Medical Faculty, will not only improve our understanding of subtype specificity in PDAC biology and therapy resistance, but will also create solid foundations for stratification-based tailored treatment strategies in PDAC.
DFG Programme
Clinical Research Units
