Spatial and functional dissection of tumour-resident microbiota and their impact on therapy response in colorectal cancer

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Elke Burgermeister
• Subject Area: Gastroenterology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 537604907

The relevance of the colorectal cancer (CRC)-associated microbiome as a prime component of the tumour microenvironment is becoming increasingly clear. However, the spatial context and the precise molecular mechanisms of the crosstalk between intratumoral bacteria and host cells remain poorly understood. Investigating the impact of intratumoral microbes on oncogenic signalling, functional tumour adaptation and therapy outcomes promises to yield major insights into cancer biology and new paths for therapeutic innovation. G. Zeller, previously at EMBL, now at Leiden University, has set up state-of-the-art approaches for mapping both host and microbial cellular identity and activity in situ using a combination of microbiome imaging and tumour transcriptome sequencing. G. Zeller’s unique expertise in (spatial) tumour microbiome analysis will be complemented by E. Burgermeister’s complementary focus and background on functional and mechanistic investigation of bacteria-tumour interactions using translational cancer models. Together, both groups will reconstitute the key components discovered in situ using PDO models from primary CRC tumours and metastases. This shall enable mechanistic spatio-temporal dissection of microbe-host crosstalk and its impact on the efficacies of chemo- and targeted therapies, paving the way for future microbiome-aware personalised oncology approaches to prevent treatment resistance in metastatic CRC.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5806: Functional Genomics and Microbiomics in Precision Medicine of Colorectal Cancer (GenoMiCC)
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Georg Zeller