Researcher Database
Prof. Dr. Martin Schuler
Innere Klinik (Tumorforschung) Universitätsklinikum Essen
Hufelandstrasse 55
45147 Essen
Program
Molecularly Targeted Therapy (MTT)
Summary
Professor Schuler’s preclinical research focusses on the identification of mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance to biologically rational cancer therapies. In addition, he runs an active clinical and translational research program on development, validation and translation of novel biomarkers and treatments in Medical Oncology with a particular focus on lung cancer.
Selected Publications
Kalkavan H, Sharma P, Kasper S, Helfrich I, Pandyra AA, Gassa A, Virchow I, Flatz L, Brandenburg T, Namineni S, Heikenwalder M, Höchst B, Knolle PA, Wollmann G, von Laer D, Drexler I, Rathbun J, Cannon PM, Scheu S, Bauer J, Chauhan J, Häussinger D, Willimsky G, Löhning M, Schadendorf D, Brandau S, Schuler M, Lang PA, Lang KS. Spatiotemporally restricted arenavirus replication induces immune surveillance and type I interferon-dependent tumour regression. Nat Commun. 2017 Mar 1;8:14447. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14447. PubMed PMID: 28248314; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5337983.
Okimoto RA, Breitenbuecher F, Olivas VR, Wu W, Gini B, Hofree M, Asthana S, Hrustanovic G, Flanagan J, Tulpule A, Blakely CM, Haringsma HJ, Simmons AD, Gowen K, Suh J, Miller VA, Ali S, Schuler M, Bivona TG. Inactivation of Capicua drives cancer metastasis. Nat Genet. 2017 Jan;49(1):87-96. doi: 10.1038/ng.3728. Epub 2016 Nov 21. PubMed PMID: 27869830; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5195898.
Wiesweg M, Eberhardt WEE, Reis H, Ting S, Savvidou N, Skiba C, Herold T, Christoph DC, Meiler J, Worm K, Kasper S, Theegarten D, Hense J, Hager T, Darwiche K, Oezkan F, Aigner C, Welter S, Kühl H, Stuschke M, Schmid KW, Schuler M. High Prevalence of Concomitant Oncogene Mutations in Prospectively Identified Patients with ROS1-Positive Metastatic Lung Cancer. J Thorac Oncol. 2017 Jan;12(1):54-64. doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2016.08.137. Epub 2016 Aug 27. PubMed PMID: 27575422.
Schuler M, Wu YL, Hirsh V, O'Byrne K, Yamamoto N, Mok T, Popat S, Sequist LV, Massey D, Zazulina V, Yang JC. First-Line Afatinib versus Chemotherapy in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Common Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Gene Mutations and Brain Metastases. J Thorac Oncol. 2016 Mar;11(3):380-90. doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2015.11.014. Epub 2016 Jan 25. PubMed PMID: 26823294.
Schuler M, Yang JC, Park K, Kim JH, Bennouna J, Chen YM, Chouaid C, De Marinis F, Feng JF, Grossi F, Kim DW, Liu X, Lu S, Strausz J, Vinnyk Y, Wiewrodt R, Zhou C, Wang B, Chand VK, Planchard D; LUX-Lung 5 Investigators. Afatinib beyond progression in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer following chemotherapy, erlotinib/gefitinib and afatinib: phase III randomized LUX-Lung 5 trial. Ann Oncol. 2016 Mar;27(3):417-23. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdv597. Epub 2015 Dec 8. PubMed PMID: 26646759; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4769992.
Göbel C, Breitenbuecher F, Kalkavan H, Hähnel PS, Kasper S, Hoffarth S, Merches K, Schild H, Lang KS, Schuler M. Functional expression cloning identifies COX-2 as a suppressor of antigen-specific cancer immunity. Cell Death Dis. 2014 Dec 11;5:e1568. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2014.531. PubMed PMID: 25501829; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4649842.
Shaw AT, Kim DW, Mehra R, Tan DS, Felip E, Chow LQ, Camidge DR, Vansteenkiste J, Sharma S, De Pas T, Riely GJ, Solomon BJ, Wolf J, Thomas M, Schuler M, Liu G, Santoro A, Lau YY, Goldwasser M, Boral AL, Engelman JA. Ceritinib in ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med. 2014 Mar 27;370(13):1189-97. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1311107. PubMed PMID: 24670165; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4079055.
Breitenbuecher F, Hoffarth S, Worm K, Cortes-Incio D, Gauler TC, Köhler J, Herold T, Schmid KW, Freitag L, Kasper S, Schuler M. Development of a highly sensitive and specific method for detection of circulating tumor cells harboring somatic mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer patients. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 21;9(1):e85350. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085350. eCollection 2014. PubMed PMID: 24465542; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3897440.
DKTK Junior Group Leader for Cancer Systems Biology
Single-cell approaches have not only revealed a wide variety of cell states, characterized by cells exhibiting striking differences in their transcriptional profile, but have also illuminated the mechanisms underlying state transitions in health and disease. Cellular plasticity and adaptive state changes have recently emerged as a basis for therapeutic resistance in cancer, and a better understanding of how cell state transitions are regulated is critical to develop therapeutic approaches that can overcome therapy resistance.
Our research focuses on understanding the mechanisms driving non-genetic cellular heterogeneity and therapy resistance in malignancy. Using novel single-cell sequencing approaches, we seek to develop new experimental and computational strategies to define altered cell states in both, cancer and immune cells. Our aim is to leverage a data driven strategy combined with single cell genomics and systems biology to address the challenges posed by heterogeneity in cancer, and to develop new strategies to overcome it, with the aim of translating laboratory-based findings into the clinic.