Summary

The principal aim of this research program is to counter the devastating recurrence rate of primary resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) by means of applying immunotherapeutic strategies in the (neo)adjuvant setting. Our work over the past years has demonstrated that, in contrast to general expectations, pancreatic cancer is not a ‘cold’ tumor. Instead, we found clear evidence for the existence of an anti-tumor T-cell response that may be harnessed by immunotherapeutic strategies. Drugs/therapeutic approaches of primary interest in this respect are:
• Adoptive T-cell therapy using ex vivo expanded TILs or T cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy
• Agonist immunostimulatory antibodies (Abs), in particular Abs targeting CD40
• Small molecule cytostatic drugs, in particular MEK-inhibitors
The three main pillars of this program are (i) patient-based research, using the tumor biopsies and other patient samples obtained from the European Pancreas Center (EPC) of the Surgery Department of University Hospital Heidelberg, (ii) genetic mouse models that reflect the biology and immunology of PDA and (iii) strategic collaborations with Pharma/Biotech.
https://www.dkfz.de/en/gastrointestinale-tumoren/index.php
https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/Sektion-Pankreaskarzinomforschung.135605.0.html
I am also head of the joint DKFZ-Bayer Immunotherapeutics Laboratory, where we focus on three aspects: the identification of novel targets for immune oncology drugs, the experimental validation of such targets and the systematic screening of drug candidates in physiologically relevant in vitro and in vivo assays.
https://www.dkfz.de/en/dkfz-bayer-allianz/Joint-Immunotherapy-Laboratory.html