Prof. Dr. Wilfried Roth

Electron microscopy of a cancer cell: formation of giant mitochondria during the process of a specialized form of cell death

Our group is located both at the DKFZ and the Institute of Pathology at the University Hospital Heidelberg. Our cooperative unit aims at bringing together basic cancer research and clinical medicine. In this regard, the translational research is focussed on the primary human cancer tissue. We are specifically interested in the molecular mechanisms of therapy resistance in malignant tumors. Defects in the intracellular signaling cascades resulting in cell death are responsible for the therapy resistance in many types of cancer. Our research is focussed on the molecular mechanisms which allow tumor cells to evade apoptotic or non-apoptotic cell death. The identification of these resistance mechanisms is a prerequisite for the development of novel effective therapy approaches and contributes to a better understanding of the molecular basis of therapy resistance in colon cancer, urological tumors, and malignant brain tumors.
The second area of research is the identification of prognostic and predictive tumor markers. Due to their central biological relevance, cell death-regulating proteins are decisive for the therapy response in cancer. Therefore, we study the expression of cell death-regulating proteins in the primary human cancer tissue to identify tumor markers. This predictive approach in molecular pathology aims at the identification of biomarkers which is required for the development of individualized therapeutic approaches for cancer patients.