Mainz, Germany, May 2, 2012 – With more than 20 scientific abstracts TRON scientists present their latest research at the 11th Annual Meeting of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), May 14-16, 2013 in Mainz, Germany. Four TRON abstract authors will present their research as short talks. CIMT is the largest European meeting focused on cancer immunotherapy research and development.

TRON presentations at CIMT:

April 18, 2013

Dr. Jan Korbel

“Origin, complexity and impact of DNA structural rearrangements in cancer”

He is Group Leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and working on the origin and function of genomic variation . His group takes part in the 1000 Genomes Project and participates in the International Cancer Genome Consortium. In this context Jan Korbel’s group identified catastrophic DNA rearrangements called chromothripsis in the development of cancer (Cell. 2012 Jan 20;148(1-2):59-71). Another major recent contribution of his group was the mapping of copy n...

Washington, D.C., USA, April 9, 2013 – At the Annual Meeting of the American Asscociation for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., TRON director Ugur Sahin presents recent data on how TRON uses genomics to identify mutational tumor antigens for cancer immunotherapy. Fellow session speakers are Robert Schreiber (Washington University School of Medicine), James P. Allison (UT MD Anderson Cancer Center) and Pramod Srivastava (University of Connecticut Health Center), summing up approaches taken ...

April 11, 2013

Prof. Dr. Alexander Steinkasserer

“Induction of regulatory T cells by soluble CD83 – Modulation of the immune system in autoimmunity and transplantation”

Prof. Steinkasserer leads the Department for Immune Modulation at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen. The main focus of Steinkasserer’s current research efforts are concentrated around Dendritic Cell (DC) biology. DC are the most potent antigen presenting cells. Once activated by DC’s, T-cells can complete the immune response by interacting with other cells and targets for lysis. Therefore, DC’s repr...

Mainz, Germany, March 2013 – Delegates from the Kurume University Department of Immunotherapy and the “Kurume Research Park” of Kurume City, Japan, have visited TRON to join forces in promoting concepts for personalized cancer medicine. The Department of Immunotherapy in Kurume, under the leadership of Kyogo Itoh, has pioneered personalized peptide vaccination in Japan. The Japanese delegation of T. Sasada and A. Ohuchida agreed with TRON director Ugur Sahin to collaborate on the development of biomarkers and personalized vaccines.

Mainz, Germany, March 8, 2013 – Clinicians, scientists and technologists in the Rhine-Main area have come together to make biomarker research and use an integral part of the treatment routine for individual cancer patients. The effort will combine the expertise of regional medical centers, research institutes and technology companies. The program, an integral project of the Cluster for Individualized ImmuneIntervention, is supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research. A total ...

March 7, 2013

Prof. Philipp Beckhove

“Local irradiation and the role of macrophages for tumor immune rejection”

Dr. Beckhove is the Head of the Translational Immunology Division at the German Cancer Research Institute (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. He studied medicine at the Universities of Hamburg and Heidelberg, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine (Hematology/Oncology) at the University Medical Center, Heidelberg. Dr. Beckhove then became head of the DKFZ Research Group “Translational Immunology” and in 2008 followed a call as Associate Professor for Immunotherapy at the Comprehensive Canc...

February 28, 2013

Prof. Ferdinando Nicoletti

“ Macrophage migration inhibitory factor as novel therapeutic target for the treatment of type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases”

Professor Ferdinando Nicoletti, MD, is a full Professor of Medical Laboratory Sciences at the University of Catania, Italy. Prof. Nicoletti is a recognized expert in the discovery and development of new drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer. He serves and has served as an advisor to and collaborator with leading pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, MerckSerono, Leo Pharma, Merck and Pfizer, that ...

February 21, 2013

Richard Scheuermann, PhD

“Unsupervised clustering and supervised classification for the automated analysis of flow cytometry data”

Richard H. Scheuermann, Ph.D., Director of Informatics at JCVI, has established a productive research program investigating signal transduction pathways that regulate normal lymphocyte development and function that induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in lymphomas, supported through numerous research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and other granting agencies...

Mainz, Germany, February 8, 2013 – TRON together with the Institute for Immunology at University Medical Center Mainz and Ribological GmbH has been granted a total of 1.35 Mio Euro to develop a systems biology predictive algorithm to identify immunogenic tumor anitgens. The grant is awarded by “e:Bio Innovatonswettbewerb Systembiologie” of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. The joint project aims to integrate quantitative transcriptional and proteomic data, protein chara...

January 31, 2013

Dr. Pierre van der Bruggen

“Regulation of T lymphocyte function in tumors”

Van der Bruggen is group leader at de Duve Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels. His research focuses on the identification of tumor antigens recognized by T cells and a mechanism causing anergy of CD8 and CD4 T lymphocytes. Van der Bruggen’s group tries to understand why tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are unable to kill tumor cells, and to find strategies to overcome this blockage. The group has discovered a new type of anergy of human tumor-infiltrating lymph...

On January 22, 2013, TRON founder and Scientific Director Ugur Sahin will speak at the National Center for Tumor Diseases in Heidelberg, Germany. His talk “Towards Individualized Immunotherapy” will give an overview of current and future developments in the dynamic field of immuno-oncology. The Heidelberg Grand Rounds (HGR) have been established as a forum to bring together basic scientists and clinicians. Distinguished experts present novel clinical and research findings and provide a comprehensive update in the respective field of oncology. In addition to the high-ranking scientific and clinical presentations, the HGR also constitute a casual get-together, seasoned with drinks and refreshments, to foster a lively atmosphere for continued discussion.

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January 17, 2013

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Platten

“Novel potential targets in glioma immunotherapy”

Mainz, Germany, January 7, 2013 – TRON scientists have created a new computational tool to determine Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) directly from existing and future RNA-Seq reads. The method has been published in the December issue of Genome Medicine. The authors provide a tool which uses standard RNA-Seq reads and requires no change to lab protocols, adding a new dimension for HLA typing and biomarker studies.

The main task of the immune system is to protect the body against pathogenic infl...

Mainz, December 21, 2012 – TRON is whishing all of its partners and friends happy holidays and a successful New Year 2013.

December 13, 2012

Prof. Dr. Ada Kruisbeek

“Challenges and opportunities of a next generation dendritic cell cancer vaccine: pre-clinical and clinical overview”

Ada Kruisbeek is an immunologist whose career has been dedicated to gaining insights into how the immune system is regulated, and in translating scientific discoveries in that field into novel immunotherapeutics, in particular against cancer. She founded DCPrime in 2006 and is currently responsible for the overall scientific agenda. She has more than 30 years of managerial experience in science and business, first in academic settings, and later in indust...

November 22, 2012

Dr. Matthew L. Albert

“Making biomarkers functional – a path towards personalized medicine”

Dr. Matthew L. Albert Director of Research INSERM and Head of the Laboratory of Dendritic Cell Immunobiology at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, leading a team in the area of dendritic cell immunobiology and tumor immunity.

His research focuses on:

TRON participates with posters and presentations

Mainz, Germany, November 19, 2012 – On December 5, the Cluster for Individualized ImmunIntervention (CI-3) hosts a conference for participating partners and networks to present all projects sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The meeting will take place at Kurfürstliches Schloss in Mainz and offers a poster exhibit and workshops on regulatory affairs, biomarkers for diagnostics and therapies, and cluster manage...

November 15, 2012

Prof. Dr. Michel Aguet

“Role of BCL9 proteins in Wnt-mediated stem cell maintenance”

Prof. Aguet is the director of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Lausanne. Working with partners from different university hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry, the NCCR seeks new cancer therapies, discover mechanisms of tumor formation and endeavor to translate these findings into therapeutic approaches. The research projects target different aspects of the fundamental biology of tumors and the response of healthy cells to cancer.

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October 11, 2012

Ronald Rooke, PhD

“Tetramere validation and new targets in oncology”

Mainz, Germany, October 2, 2012 – TRON scientists have pioneered a statistical framework that enables researchers to reduce the number of false discovery rates for tumor mutations. The method was published in the September issue of PLOS Computational Biology. While next generation sequencing (NGS) has enabled the highly accurate, unbiased, and high throughput discovery of genetic variations and somatic mutations, the platform is still prone to errors resulting in inaccurate mutation calls...

October 5, 2012 – Change of date!

Prof. Dr. Ton Schumacher

“Dissecting cytotoxic T cell immunity in mice and men”

Prof. Schuhmacher’s team at the Netherlands Cancer Institute investigates and designs technologies to examine and modify antigen-specific T cell immunity and then use these novel tools to unravel and manipulate the molecular processes underlying immune recognition by T lymphocytes. Within these projects, a main focus is on the design and testing of novel concepts for adoptive immunotherapy. Ton Schumacher performed his Ph.D. research from 1988-1992 at The Netherlands Cancer Institute where he studie...

Mainz, Germany, September 6, 2012 – The emerging era of individualized cancer immunotherapy is dramatically changing the target landscape by adding targets that can be recognized by antibodies and T cells, thus significantly increasing the number of druggable tumor targets. In a recent article in the European Pharmaceutical Review, TRON scientists describe a process to generate patient-specific custom-made therapeutic vaccines to provide patients with a more efficacious and less toxic tre...

September 6, 2012 – CANCELLED due to Lufthansa strike. Seminar will now take place on 15th November 2012!

Prof. Dr. Michel Aguet

“Role of BCL9 proteins in Wnt-mediated stem cell maintenance”

Prof. Aguet is the director of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Lausanne. Working with partners from different university hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry, the NCCR seeks new cancer therapies, discover mechanisms of tumor formation and endeavor to translate these findings into therapeutic approaches. The research projects target differ...

Mainz, Germany, August 15, 2012 – Reviewing recent developments in the optimization of messenger RNA, TRON scientists document the benefit of improved RNA vectors for gene therapy, immunotherapy and the manipulation of cell fates. The review is up for publication in the journal Current Gene Therapy. Several viral and non-viral vectors have been developed for exogenous protein expression in specific cells. Conventionally, this purpose is achieved through the use of recombinant DNA. Synthetic m...

August 16, 2012

Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Thiesen

“Autoimmunity in oncology: from epitope profiling to vaccination studies”

Prof. Hans-Jürgen Thiesen is the director of the Institute for Immunology in Rostock and an expert in the analysis of general mechanisms in transcriptional gene regulation with emphasis on transcriptional repressor mechanisms. He is involved in several regional, national and international scientific research networks, including the BMBF-Leitprojektverbund ”Proteom-Analyse des Menschen” (Proteome Alliance), the “Landesforschungsschwerpunkt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Genome-oriented Biotech...

Increasing transparency and quality of immune response measurements

Mainz, Germany and New York, NY, USA, July 26, 2012 – The Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT) Immunoguiding Program (CIP) and the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) today announced the publication of a letter in Immunity discussing the results of an unique vetting process that involved multiple international groups and individuals and has now led to publication guidelines tha...

Mainz, July 12 – TRON and the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz collaborated on a novel visualization of gastric cancer by using monoclonal antibodies targeting EGFR1 as molecular probes for in vivo molecular confocal laser endomicroscopy (mCLE). The study published in the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy used non-invasive in vivo biofluorescence imaging technology at the TRON In Vivo Imaging core facility to confirm the results obtained from mCLE. The scientists expect mCLE to help diagnose and characterize gastric cancer during ongoing gastroscopy and to assist in the prediction of response to therapy.

Michael S. Hoetker, Ralf Kiesslich, Mustafa Diken, Markus Moehler, Peter R. Galle, Yanqing Li, Martin Goetz,. Molecular in vivo imaging of gastric ...

Dr. Christian Bender, researcher at TRON, is one of this year’s winners of the MTZ- Foundation Award for Medical Systems Biology. The award promotes young scientists for their outstanding contributions to research in Systems Biology. The award ceremony will take place during the 4th Conference on Systems Biology of Mammalian Cells from July 9–11 2012 in Leipzig, Germany. There, the three finalists will present their dissertations for the final ranking by the jury.

In his dissertation compl...

July 5, 2012

Prof. Dr. Dirk Jäger

“Tumor-host immune interactions and their prognostic/predictive significance”

Prof. Jäger’s is the head of the Medical Oncology Department at the National Center for Tumor Diseases at the University Hospital Heidelberg.  He is working on the identification of tumor antigens, the characterization of spontaneous humoral immune resonses and the clinical relevance of local immune cell infiltration into tumors.   For more information on Dirk Jäger, go to http://www.nct-heidelberg.de/de/nct/direktorium/jaeger.php

On June 24, TRON researchers and staff will participate in a rowing challenge benefitting “Stiftung Leben mit Krebs”, a national foundation raising funds for people living with cancer. The race will take place in Mainz, starting at 10 am on the Rhine River in front of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. This is the second time TRON is participating in the challenge. This year TRON sponsors three boats in the challenge to support programs that increase the quality of life for cancer patients. Money ra...

June 14, 2012

Dr. Vijay Tiwari

“Epigenetic Regulation of Cellular Differentiation”

Dr. Tiwaris lab focuses on understanding how cell signaling events crosstalk to chromatin to mediate transcriptional regulation during development and differentiation. The research is aimed at achieving an integrated molecular and systems-level understanding of the mechanisms by which intracellular signal transduction cascades execute a diverse repertoire of transcriptional responses and how this communicates with epigenetic modifiers at gene promoters. Tiwaris team employs high throughput epigenomics assays such as ChIP-seq and...

The symposium is co-organized by the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT) and the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) of the Cancer Research Institute and will feature perspectives on actively personalized cancer vaccines and combination therapies, including clinical development and regulatory perspectives. Experts from the US, Canada and Europe will present at the symposium, including Robert Holt (BCCA Genome Sciences Centre), Laurence Zitvogel (Institut Gustave Roussy) and James Alli...

May 31, 2012

Prof. Dr. Simone Fulda

“Targeting cell death pathways for cancer therapy”

Frau Prof. Dr. Simone Fulda aims to identify the molecular mechanisms of autophagy induction by the natural compound betulinic acid using glioblastoma as a prototypic model of an apoptosis resistant cancer. In a hypothesis-driven approach, her group explores the contribution of mitophagy, analyzes the contribution of selective autophagy receptors, investigates modulation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling as a central regulator of autophagy in cancers and ...

May 10, 2012

Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra

“Anticalins: antibodies of a new kind through protein design”

Prof. Skerra is the department chair of Biological Chemistry at Technische Universität München and founder and member of the supervisory board of Pieris AG, Vice-Coordinator of the Cluster of Excellence at the Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science

Prof. Skerra conducts research in the field of protein engineering and design. The focus of this work is on the construction of artificial proteins with new customized functions, such as antibody fragments with biomedically relevant an...

Mainz, Germany, May 3, 2012 – TRON scientists will present their latest research at the largest European expert meeting for cancer immunotherapy. The TRON research talks will cover individualized medicine, next-generation sequencing, T-cell functionalities and RNA vaccines. The CIMT Meeting takes place May 23-25th in Mainz, Germany.

Prof. Dr. Ugur Sahin, TRON founder and Executive Director Science and Research, will present progress in individualized medicine as part of the Regulatory Re...

May 3, 2012

Dr. Sonja Quaratino

“An insight on therapeutic cancer vaccines”

Sonia Quaratino joined Merck Serono in 2008 where she is currently working as Senior Medical Director and Immunology Advisor, responsible for the mechanisms of action studies of immunotherapy in the Global Development & Medical Area at Merck-Serono.

Sonia holds a MD from the University of Palermo, Italy and a PhD in Immunology from Imperial College London, UK.

She has spent 20 years in UK in academic institutions, Imperial College London and since 2001 at the University of Southampton, a leading institutio...

April 19, 2012

Dr. Robert Holt

“Genomic analysis of tumour infection & immunity”

Dr. Robert Holt received his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Alberta in 1998, and then moved to the State University of New York for his post-doctoral fellowship in Molecular Evolution. Since 2002 Dr. Holt is Head of Sequencing at Michel Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency. He is co-director of the Genome Canada/Genome British Columbia Genomics platform and he is an Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. He also holds an appointm...

Mainz, Germany, March 7, 2012 – The institute of Translational Oncology (TRON) today officially announced the members of the inaugural TRON Scientific Advisory Board. Five international experts from the fields of immunology and drug development will advise TRON on pursuing new diagnostics and drugs for the treatment of cancer and other diseases of the immune system. TRON’s management is looking forward to working together with these internationally recognized experts, who will support TRON�...

Public-private partnership will begin preclinical testing of melanoma immunotherapy based on individual tumor mutations

Mainz, February 13, 2012 – The German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) has granted 1.2 Mio EUR over 3 years to the Consortium of Individualized Vaccines for Cancer (IVAC), a public-private partnership that pursues the development, production, clinical testing and commercialization of RNA based individualized cancer vaccines for treatment of malignant melanoma, a severe form of skin cancer. The grant is being awarded as a result of the ministry’s call for „Innovative therapeutic processes on a molecular or cellular basis“.

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Regional Cluster for Individualized ImmunoIntervention (CI-3) Wins Final BMBF “Spitzencluster” Competition

TRON participates with more than 25 projects

Mainz, January 19, 2012 – The Federal Ministery of Education and Research (BMBF) grants 40 million EUR towards the development of individualized immunotherapeutics and diagnostics as proposed in the CI3 Cluster application. More than 100 organizations and companies from the Rhine-Main area participate with over 70 R&D projects.

Deep sequencing of immunogenic mutations may pave way for customized immunotherapy

Mainz, January 17, 2012 – The Institute of Translational Oncology (TRON) together with BioNTech AG today announced the publication of a joint paper in the international journal Cancer Research that describes a new path for individually tailored cancer therapy. An interdisciplinary team of genome scientists and immunologists led by the cancer researcher Prof. Ugur Sahin for the first time demonstrated that wh...

Mainz, January 9, 2012 – To quickly identify cancer driver variants that inform the development of an experimental individualized RNA-based therapeutic, TRON collaborated with Silicon Valley developer Ingenuity® Systems.

Revolutionary Microfluidics technology expedites TRON drug target discovery

TRON invests in Fluidigm™ real time PCR-System to quickly validate tumor markers

Mainz – January 2, 2012 – To further streamline the efficiency of its biomarker development platform, TRON purchased the high-throughput BioMark™ System by Fluidigm. The innovative system will allow TRON researchers to validate new drug targets more quickly and more efficiently, accelerating tumor tissue analysis 100 fold in c...

Mainz, December 21, 2011 – Wishing all of our partners and friends Happy Holidays and a successful New Year 2012.

December 8, 2011

Dr. Jérôme Galon

“Intratumoral Immune Reaction. A Novel Paradigm for Cancer”

Dr. Jérôme Galon is research director for INSERM and head of the Integrative Cancer Immunology Laboratory at Cordeliers Research Center in Paris. Dr. Galon has developed a multi-disciplinary network with research scientists in immunology and cancerology, clinic...

TRON Seminar in Translational Oncology

Prof. Mike Stratton

“Landscapes Evolving Through the Mist”Finding patterns in the heterogeneity of cancer

Mainz, November, 24 – As part of the TRON Seminars in Translational Oncology, Prof. Mike Stratton of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute presented an overview on the evolution of the cancer genome at University Medical Center in Mainz. Stratton presented insights into the work of the Intern...

London, November 14 and 15, 2011 – John Castle, PhD, head of TRON Computational Medicine & Medical Genomics will present TRON’s efforts to deeply examine the cancer transcriptome using NGS.  The meeting provides a forum for over 250 international practitioners and researchers to learn more about key next generation sequencing methods and applications being provided to their industry.

November 24, 2011

Prof. Mike Stratton

“Evolution of the Cancer Genome”

Professor Stratton qualified in medicine, trained as a histopathologist, and was inspired by the understanding of disease processes that can be revealed by microscopy. During his training, he recognised the opportunities to understand causes of cancer t...

“TRON – The Translational Center of the CI3-Cluster”

Mainz, November 7, 2011 – On November 8, 2011, Prof. Dr. Ugur Sahin, Managing Director Science and Research of TRON, will give a presentation on the work of TRON and its role within the Cluster for Individualized Immunintervention (CI3).

November 3, 2011

Dr. Nicolae Ghinae

“Expression of the FSH Receptor in Tumor Blood Vessels: Recent Data and Perspectives”

Dr. Nicolae Ghinae will talk about his recent work on a universal tumor marker and its possibilities for detecting and treating tumor growth. The follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is a key hormone in mammalian reproductive function. In ...

Mainz, October 18, 2011 – Collaborative White Paper between the Mainz based Association of Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT) and the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in New York outlines new methodological framework to guide informed, reproducible success in cancer immunotherapy development.

…Ralph Steinman, Jules Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler have devoted their work to the elucidation of the complex interplay between the innate and the adaptive immune system. Their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms of pathogen detection and the role of dendritic cells contributed substantially to the understanding of immune responses. The results are the basis for future therapeutic strategies which are also under development by TRON`s scientists.

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Cluster for Individualized ImmunoIntervention (CI-3) Submits Final BMBF “Spitzencluster” Grant Aplication

TRON participates with immunotherapies, centralized service facilities, biomarker research and analysis projects

In competing for one of up to five “leading-edge cluster” awards of the German Federal Ministery of Education and Science (BMBF), the Rhein-Main regional Cluster for Individualized ImmunoIntervention (CI-3) today submitted its final project application. More than 120 r...

Mainz, September 1, 2011 – The internationally renowned journal “Nature Gene Therapy” published a commentary on a recent publication from TRON scientist on the mechanism of RNA anti tumor vaccines (Diken et al.; 2011). The commentary stresses the importance of the findings of Diken et al. for the understanding and further development of RNA based anti tumor vaccination.

Added Immunostimulation Improves Tumor Vaccination

TRON scientists demonstrated how tumor growth may be stopped by injecting a human growth factor protein alongside a RNA-vaccine. Their findings were published in the August issue of the international journal “Cancer Research”.

The so called Flt3-ligand is a human growth factor protein that had previously been investigated as a possible adjuvant in early clinical trials vaccination studies, demonstrating good tolerabi...