The EPHO has been awarded funding from the José Carreras leukemia foundation totaling € 616.000

The team of the Institute of Experimental Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (EPHO) is delighted and proud to have received substantial funding from the José Carreras Leukemia Foundation for two projects led respectively by PD Dr. Meike Vogler and Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckl which will help to promote research at the Petra-Joh Research House.
Over the next few years, PD Dr. Vogler’s research project “Targeting senescence as anti-lymphoma strategy” will investigate the role of senescence, a cellular protective mechanism against stress and abnormal cell growth, in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Prof. Dr. Heckl’s project “Defining novel vulnerabilities in pediatric high-risk AML” will explore the role of early childhood gene expression patterns in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia, a particularly aggressive form of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
The excellent network of the EPHO, both locally in Frankfurt and internationally, and in particular Prof. Jan-Henning Klusmann, Director of the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine of the University Hospital at the Goethe University Frankfurt, and Prof. Salvador Macip of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute at the University of Barcelona, have been crucial to the success of the grant proposals.
Both projects will employ the latest methodologies of molecular and cell biology, which will contribute to a high translational potential and increase the chances of new successful cancer therapies.
Project Prof. Heckl:
Utilizing disease modelling, phenotypic characterization and comparative analysis of pediatric and adult cell of origin contribution to cancerogenesis, the project will comprehensively decipher the molecular core of NUP98::KDM5A-driven acute leukemias and leverage this gained knowledge to develop molecularly targeted therapies for this currently hard-to-treat subform of AML.
Project Dr. Vogler:
Lymphoma is treated with a combination of immuno- and chemotherapy, which can lead to cell death or apoptosis. In some patients, not all lymphoma cells die upon chemotherapy, which causes resistance and treatment failure. In solid tumours, chemotherapy can also induce cellular senescence and the associated induction of cytokine release. In this project, we aim to investigate the role of senescence in lymphoma and the consequences of senescence-associated cytokine release on lymphoma cells as well as the microenvironment.