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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Graduation ceremony: certificates and prizes for outstanding work.
151 young men and women in a celebratory mood: the Hannover Medical School (MHH) awarded them their doctoral certificates last Friday - allowing them to use the title of doctor in their names from now on. All of the university's degree programmes were represented at the award ceremony. Among the 89 doctoral students and 62 doctoral candidates were 68 medical doctors, 48 medical scientists, three dentists, 17 natural scientists, eight natural scientists, three human biologists and one doctoral student of population medicine (public health).
For the first time, the new MHH President Prof Dr Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner welcomed the doctoral candidates and their families and friends to the graduation ceremony at the university. "With your work, you have not only demonstrated scientific ability, but also created something unique that enriches our scientific world," Professor Hilfiker-Kleiner praised the doctoral candidates. "Keep your curiosity, courage and idealism in your future endeavours and always keep the MHH motto 'Every day for life' in your hearts." The MHH President then called all doctoral candidates to the stage in small groups and presented them with their doctoral certificates. A total of 28 doctoral students graduated with honours.
Two doctoral students received the doctoral prizes of the Society of Friends of the MHH e.V., each endowed with 2,500 euros. The prizes for outstanding doctoral theses were presented by Prof Dr Siegfried Piepenbrock, Chairman of the Society of Friends of the MHH e.V., together with the new Dean of Research, Prof Dr Meike Stiesch. The prizewinners are Dr Shen Zhong and Dr Linda Steinacher. Dr Shen Zhong will be working at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg as a postdoctoral researcher in the field of translational bioinformatics from July. Dr rer. nat. Linda Steinacher is a translational scientist at the Institute of Human Biology at F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG in Basel.
New approaches for personalised therapies for lung cancer
Dr Shen Zhong obtained her doctorate at the Institute of Pharmaco- and Toxicogenomics Research at the MHH. Her dissertation entitled "Sex disparities in non-small cell lung cancer: Mechanistic insights from a cRaf transgenic disease model" was supervised by Prof Dr Jürgen Borlak. In the work, Dr Zhong investigated how circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) - tiny RNA molecules in the blood - can be used as non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and therapy monitoring of lung cancer. By systematically analysing 228 studies with a total of around 30,000 test subjects, she was able to identify 38 miRNAs that reliably differentiate between healthy and diseased individuals. Some of these miRNAs also show a close link to certain types of lung cancer and the response rate to cancer therapies.
Another focus of her work was gender-specific tumour development. An animal model showed that female animals develop lung cancer significantly more frequently and more severely. Through extensive gene expression analyses, Dr Zhong was able to show that the hormone oestrogen in particular activates numerous cancer-relevant genes in female animals, including oncogenes, cell cycle genes and signalling pathways that promote tumour growth and suppress the immune system. The influence of tobacco smoke was also investigated: it significantly increased tumour growth, particularly in female animals, and led to the sex-specific regulation of other cancer-related genes. The results show that gender differences should be given greater consideration in both diagnosis and treatment. The findings from Dr Zhong's work provide new approaches for personalised, gender-specific therapies for lung cancer.
Link to the original publication: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(23)00329-8/fullte...
Immune organoids help to understand the side effects of active substances
Dr rer. nat. Linda Steinacher received her doctorate with a thesis on "Investigating Drug-Induced Immune-Related Adverse Events in Human Barrier Organs Using Advanced Immunocompetent Organoid Models". The dissertation was a collaboration between the MHH, the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and F.Hoffmann-La Roche AG. The work was supervised by Dr Lauriane Cabon and Prof. Dr Armin Braun. In her dissertation, Dr Steinacher deals with the development of so-called immune organoids. Background: Modern immunotherapies, such as those used in cancer treatment, can cause new and previously unknown side effects. In order to be able to better investigate and treat these, realistic models are required that replicate human organs and their immune systems as accurately as possible. In recent years, so-called organoids have been developed for this purpose. These are small, laboratory-grown mini-organs that imitate human tissue. However, organoids usually only consist of a few organ-specific cells and do not have a realistic immune function.
This is where Dr Steinacher's research comes in. As the tissue-specific immune system plays an important role in the occurrence of side effects, she and her team developed new models for the intestine and lungs that contain immune cells. To this end, the researchers obtained both the typical cells of the respective organs and the appropriate immune cells from fresh human tissue donations. In the next step, these were cultivated together to create so-called immune organoids. With the help of these models, the research group was able to investigate the effect of various immune-based cancer therapies in more detail and better understand the reaction of the immune system in the lungs and intestines to certain drugs. The immune organoids will support the development of new, even more effective drugs, as they help to recognise the immune-mediated side effects of new active substances at an early stage.
Link to the original publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07791-5
Received doctoral prizes: Dr Shen Zhong and Dr Linda Steinacher.
Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
Promotion party: The band Medicine for the Soul delighted the audience with jazz and pop songs.
Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
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Received doctoral prizes: Dr Shen Zhong and Dr Linda Steinacher.
Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
Promotion party: The band Medicine for the Soul delighted the audience with jazz and pop songs.
Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH
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