SP7: Understanding and exploiting tumor cell specific adaptations to targeted therapies in BTC

Despite advances in targeted cancer therapies, many cancer patients do not experience long-term benefits. The SP7 team believes that these therapies force cancer cells to adapt quickly, relying on a few key pathways that can be targeted. To better understand and exploit these adaptation processes, clinician scientists Arndt Vogel (MD) and Axel Schambach (MD/PhD) will combine their expertise in clonal tracking, functional genomics, and disease modeling. Using the example of BTC, our interdisciplinary project aims to develop strategies to avoid relapse and enable long-term cure.

The PhD- and MD candidates of the first cohort (Vogel lab) will utilize advanced in vivo and in vitro models and characterize them at single-cell resolution to monitor the responses of BTC to novel KRAS-targeted therapies. This will establish a starting point for the PhD- and MD-candidates of the second cohort (Schambach group) who will conduct state-of-the-art CRISPR-based drug-target screens and subsequent pharmacological validation experiments, ultimately identifying clinically actionable vulnerabilities. With our joint approach we hope to lay the foundation for a better prognosis for BTC patients.