Summary

The research-focus of my laboratory is on neurooncology, neural stem cell biology and neuroimmunology. In one line of research we study the signal transduction pathways regulating the division, differentiation and neoplastic transformation of neural stem and precursor cells (NPCs). Throughout the last years we discovered that NPCs release tumor suppressors, namely vanilloids, which can be adopted for new brain tumor therapies. Currently, we develop protocols, together with a pharmaceutical company, to apply vanilloids as new high-grade glioma (GBM) therapeutics. Furthermore, we work on the role of brain-specific macrophages (microglia) in brain tumor initiation and glioma progression.
It is now well established that the vast inter-patient and intratumoral heterogeneity of GBM is a major caveat for chemo- and radiation therapy. The benefits of irradiation appear to be restricted to some GBM subset and tumor-associated myeloid cells can convert irradiation-responsive tumors into resistant GBM. In order to investigate new concepts for GBM treatment on the preclinical level we have established a range of transgenic mouse models faithfully recapitulating different human GBM subtypes and also generated a collection of genetically and genomically characterized GBM cultures from intraoperative biopsies. This set on in vitro and in vivo models is used to stratify chemo- or irradiation-sensitive GBM-subsets and to resolve GBM heterogeneity by molecular imaging procedures. Together with collaborating scientists from Nuclear Medicine we use our preclinical in vivo models to obtain morphological information on GBM by MRI and use PET to characterize innovative markers as well distinct metabolic subtypes of GBM in vivo. Altogether, this strategy is suited to uncover new genetic markers and new molecular imaging procedures with predictive power for pharmacological GBM-treatment (by vanilloids) and for radiation-therapy.