Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne

DFG awards a new CRC 1530 in lymphoma and inflammation research and the next funding period of the CRC 1310 ´Predictability in Evolution´

26/11/2021

The award of the new CRC 1530 (speaker - Michael Hallek) and the extension of the CRC 1310 (speaker - Michael Lässig) refers to the great team of scientists at the University of Cologne and their cooperating partners. Scientists from the CMMC are involved in both CRCs.

New CRC 1530 ‘Elucidation and targeting of pathogenic mechanisms in B cell malignancies’
The CRC 1530 - located at the Faculty of Medicine - will draw on the strengths of an existing group of scientists from the fields of lymphoma and inflammation research with highly complementary skills and knowledge. The CRC will be funded with 10.9 million euros over the course of 4 years. The speaker of the new CRC is the oncologist Professor Dr Michael Hallek, Director of Department I for Internal Medicine and of the Centrum for Integrated Oncology.

The collaboration of the scientists focuses on synergies in the discovery of new pathomechanisms and therapeutic strategies. The aim of the consortium is to significantly improve the cure rate of patients with prognostically unfavourable B-cell neoplasms, a cancer of the lymphatic system, over the next 12 years through innovative therapies based on the understanding of mechanisms. This will be achieved by efficiently interrupting oncogenic signalling pathways of the lymphoma cell and specifically modulating the lymphoma microenvironment.

Professor Dr. Michael Hallek said: ‘We are very pleased. This CRC is an award for a great team of scientists from our university and our partners from Göttingen, Frankfurt, Essen, and Heidelberg. The research alliance will produce essential findings on lymphoma that will be used directly to better treat patients with this cancer.’

CRC 1310 ´Predictability in Evolution´- is entering the next DFG funding period
CRC 1310 ‘Predictability in Evolution’ - located at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences - addresses the question of whether and how paths and outcomes of future evolutionary processes can be predicted. The researchers are working on this question in rapidly evolving systems: microbial populations in the laboratory, viruses and immune systems, and cancer cell populations. They are developing predictive approaches for the evolution of drug resistance in pathogens and for immune responses in their hosts. Applications include the development of antibiotics, the optimization of vaccines against influenza and Sars-Cov-2, and therapies to treat HIV and cancer.

The speaker of the Collaborative Research Center is the physicist Professor Dr. Michael Lässig at the University of Cologne. ‘We are very pleased about this vote. The combination of expertise in our CRC is unique in the world, and it enables a rapid transfer of new findings on evolution,’ Lässig remarked on the extension of the Collaborative Research Centre.

In addition to the University of Cologne, as applicant institution, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Friedrich Schiller University and the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena, Wageningen University (Netherlands), École Normale Supérieure Paris (France) and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal) are involved.

Press Release - University of Cologne
New Collaborative Research Centre and continued funding for two CRCs at the University of Cologne
November 25, 2021