idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Double success for research at the Department of Pediatrics of University Hospital Frankfurt, which is headed by Professor Jan-Henning Klusmann: German Cancer Aid has accepted Dr. Hannah Uckelmann and Dr. Marit Vermunt into the prestigious Max Eder Program and awarded them a total of €1.5m to set up their independent research teams. In the next four years, the researchers will investigate the role of the epigenome in cancer, that is, changes of the genome that do not alter the sequence of DNA bases.
Cancer develops not only as a result of changes – mutations – in the DNA sequence that lead to faulty proteins. Chemical changes in the DNA or in the proteins (histones) around which the DNA is wound influence gene activity and, if errors occur here, can also promote the development and growth of tumors.
Dr. Hannah Uckelmann focuses her research work on epigenetic factors that are important for cancer cell survival. With her Max Eder Junior Research Group, she aims to develop new treatment options for acute myeloid leukemia. Among other things, she will investigate cooperating factors of the NPM1c protein involved in cell division, using CRISPR-Cas9 “gene scissors” and protein analyses, and will develop disease models to identify new and targeted therapeutic approaches. Dr. Hannah Uckelmann recently returned from her postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and can now continue to advance her research in the field of acute myeloid leukemia.
Dr. Marit Vermunt was a postdoctoral researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she studied the role of specific regulatory proteins (transcription factors) in normal hematopoiesis. As a Max Eder Junior Research Group Leader in Frankfurt, she will now investigate the role of epigenomic modifiers in cancer. A number of cancer therapeutics target the epigenome, and in tumors, DNA methylation enzymes and proteins responsible for the spatial organization of the DNA (such as cohesin or the chromatin organizer CTCF) are frequently mutated. Vermunt and her team want to study how such epigenomic features contribute to the development of leukemia. Their research will focus on the detection of cancer-specific epigenomic features with the aim of identifying cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
The Max Eder Junior Research Group Program of German Cancer Aid supports highly qualified young physicians and scientists in cancer research after a postdoctoral stay abroad. The funding enables researchers to establish their own working groups and to advance their careers in the field of clinical oncology.
University Hospital Frankfurt
Department of Pediatrics
www.leukemia-research.de
Dr. Marit Vermunt
Max Eder Junior Research Group
Tel.: +49 (0)69 6301-86683
marit.vermunt@unimedizin-ffm.de
Dr. Hannah Uckelmann
Max Eder Junior Research Group
Tel.: +49 (0)69 6301-83033
uckelmann@med.uni-frankfurt.de
Dr. Marit Vermunt (left) and Dr. Hannah Uckelmann, University Hospital Frankfurt. Photo: private
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