Research focus

Glioblastomas are the most common and most malignant human primary brain tumors. Despite the best current surgical, radiation, and chemotherapeutic approaches, nearly all patients have tumor recurrences that lead to death, primarily because these tumors diffusely invade surrounding tissues, thus making local therapeutic approaches ineffective. Understanding the regulation of signaling pathways involved in glioblastoma migration and invasion is therefore of considerable importance for the development of more efficient and targeted tumor therapies.

In a project funded by the Max-Eder-Junior Research Group Programme of the German Cancer Aid we try to better understand the molecular and functional mechanisms underlying glioma cell migration and invasion. To achieve this goal, the laboratory emphasizes the combination of in vitro techniques with histology-based approaches that allow for direct study of molecular changes in human tissue specimens. This translational research approach may enable us to convey basic research results into clinical neuropathological applications, e.g. by identifying novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.

Another project funded by the Research Commission of the Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University focuses on the identification of novel tumor suppressor candidate genes in gliomas with special emphasis on aberrant gene methylation. In this regard, we recently reported on the frequent biallelic inactivation and transcriptional silencing of the maternally imprinted DIRAS3 gene, a novel, prognostically relevant RAS-related candidate tumor suppressor gene in oligodendroglial tumors with 1p deletion.