Max Eder Junior Research Group - Deciphering the oncogenic interplay of germline variation and somatic mutation in the progression of Ewing sarcomas
- Project Leader: Dr. Thomas Grünewald
- Affiliation: Pediatric Sarcombiology at the Institute of Pathology
- Funding: since 2016
Thomas Grünewald is researching Ewing's sarcoma, a malignant bone cancer that occurs mainly in children, adolescents and young adults. Within the new Max-Eder junior research group, he will investigate the "decoding of the oncogenic interplay of germline variation and somatic mutation in the progression of Ewing sarcomas". Ewing sarcomas are characterized by a single genetic driver mutation, the fusion oncogene EWSR1-FLI1, which alone does not seem to be sufficient to cause the tumors to develop. "Genome-wide studies indicate that germ line variations seem to have a much stronger influence on the development of tumours in children than in adults," said Grünewald. The aim of his project is to use the example of Ewing's sarcoma as a model to investigate how innate genetic variability in interaction with acquired somatic mutations translates into different clinical processes and how these findings can be used for the personalised therapy of cancer patients.
Source: LMU