Project Details
Projekt
Mapping and targeting tumor-stroma interactions in pancreatic cancer
Applicants
Dr. Corinna Ulrike Brehm; Professor Dr. Matthias Lauth
Subject Area
Gastroenterology
Term
since 2017
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 329116008
Project SP4 of the clinical research unit 325 (CRU325) focuses on the abundant and desmoplastic tumor stroma in PDAC for means of therapy and/or stratification. One part of this project (run by Corinna Brehm) characterizes the transcriptional profiles determining the divergent morphological stromal landscape caused by intra- and intertumoral heterogeneity. Underlying signaling systems will be mapped and new prognostic/predictive signatures will be associated with morphometric features in order to improve clinical pathological assessment. The other part of the project (run by Matthias Lauth) applies a pharmacological targeting strategy to inhibit two different tumor/stroma-involved protein kinases in order to combat cancer growth. This strategy has proven promising in the first CRU325 funding period and shall be analyzed by more detail in a renewal period. Both parts of this project will strongly interact with each other and with other CRU projects in order to define transcriptional stromal signatures and their changes under therapy with the final aim of designing novel therapeutic approaches involving the tumor microenvironment.
DFG Programme
Clinical Research Units
