is an innovative research network that brings together experts from various disciplines to tackle the challenge of liver cancer. Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), this initiative focuses on advancing the early detection and prevention of liver cancer.
Building on the insights gained from the earlier LiSyM network (2016–2021), LiSyM-Krebs expands its research to specifically address liver cancer. The network unites molecular and cell biologists, clinical researchers, and specialists in mathematical modeling to explore how liver cancer develops from pre-existing conditions like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis. The primary aim of this collaborative effort is to identify key biomarkers that could lead to the early diagnosis and prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
What mechanical changes in soft tissue create an environment that supports cancer growth, and how can these changes be detected early and used to develop new therapies? Leveraging unique resources and expertise, a collaboration between Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin with Technical University Dresden, University Leipzig, and the MPI-CBG we develop advanced methods to detect and analyze the physical environments that foster tumor growth. Our goal is to translate these findings into clinical practice, using imaging markers to better predict a tumor's malignancy and response to treatment.
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) has a bleak outlook, with less than 10% of patients surviving five years post-diagnosis due to late detection and limited treatment options. This project seeks to revolutionize CCA diagnosis and treatment by using bile as a liquid biopsy. Bile cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis through next-generation sequencing (NGS) is expected to enable highly sensitive early detection, outperforming current diagnostic methods. Additionally, protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) will be validated as a novel therapeutic target in CCA, potentially enhancing treatment effectiveness and expediting the development of targeted therapies.
The Cluster of Excellence “Physics of Life” unites the University and many non-University research institutes in Dresden to elucidate the laws of physics that underlie the dynamic spatiotemporal organization of life into molecules, cells and tissues. The cluster’s focus is to bring fundamental physics to biology to understand biological questions.
Our bodies rely on fats and their molecular cousins, collectively known as lipids. These slippery molecules construct our cell walls and store 90% of our energy, and their dysregulation is associated with diseases like diabetes and fatty liver disease. André Nadler, Meritxell Huch, and Alf Honigmann are leading a project to apply a technology they developed to visualize lipids in cells using fluorescence microscopes. They’re now using this technique to study the turnover and transport of lipids in laboratory models of the two main organs for nutrient uptake and processing, the intestine and the liver.