Pediatric Immuno-Oncology
- Immunology, Infection and Cancer
- KiTZ
- Junior Research Group
Dr. Dr. Franziska Blaeschke
Group Leader
Our junior research group investigates new immunotherapies for the treatment of childhood cancers.
Our Research
Our immune system is not only capable of fighting infections but can also, in principle, recognize and eliminate cancer cells. The principle of immunotherapy involves "training" the immune system to fight cancer. This is achieved, for example, through genetic modification of specific immune cells called T cells. These T cells can be engineered to carry a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) on their surface. The resulting CAR T cells can then recognize and eliminate cancer cells in the patient’s body. This type of therapy has already been highly successful in treating children and adolescents with a specific type of blood cancer (lymphoblastic leukemia). Unfortunately, the therapy has so far been less effective for other forms of blood cancer (myeloid leukemia) and most solid tumors (e.g., brain tumors or bone tumors). We aim to change this! Our research projects focus on questions such as: What strategies have tumors developed to evade detection by the immune system? How can CAR T cells recruit other immune cells for help? How can we optimize T cells to effectively migrate to solid tumors and eliminate them?
The techniques performed in our laboratory include genetic engineering (e.g., using CRISPR/Cas9, lentiviruses, or retroviruses), cell culture, flow cytometry, CRISPR screens, next-generation sequencing, various tumor models, and functional analyses (e.g., characterizing CAR T cell function). Our projects are carried out in close collaboration with colleagues at the DKFZ, KiTZ, and UKHD, as well as with our national and international partners.
Together, we aim to unravel the functionality of immune cells in cancer and develop a new generation of immunotherapies for cancer treatment.
Team
We are an international team with expertise in genetic engineering, immunotherapy, tumor models, pediatrics, immunology, genomics, bioinformatics and CRISPR screens.
-
Dr. Dr. Franziska Blaeschke
Group Leader
-
Dr. Oren Barboy
Postdoc
-
Kathleen Grüter
PhD Student
-
Eva Koitschev
Master's Student
-
Monika Kuban
Lab Manager
-
Konstantin Loher
PhD Student
Open Positions
If you're interested in working with us, please reach out to franziska.blaeschke(at)kitz-heidelberg.de. Clinician scientists are encouraged to apply through the DKFZ Clinician Scientist Program: https://www.dkfz.de/en/karriere/dkfz-clinician-scientist-program/how-to-become-a-clinician-scientist-at-dkfz/research-profiles
We are currently looking for a Technical Assistant (m/f/d) to join our team! Please submit your application via the job portal: https://jobs.dkfz.de/en/jobs/167674/technician-in-vivo-modelsimmunotherapygenetic-engineering
Selected Publications
Blaeschke, F., Chen, Y., Apathy, R., Daniel, B., Chen, A.Y., Chen, P., Sandor, K., Zhang, W., Li, Z., Mowery, C.T., Yamamoto, T.N., Nyberg, W.A., To, A., Yu, R., Bueno, R., Kim, M., Schmidt, R., Goodman, D.B., Feuchtinger, T., Eyquem, J., Ye, C.J., Carnevale, J., Satpathy, A.T., Shifrut, E., Roth, T.L., and Marson, A
Carnevale, J., Shifrut, E., Kale, N., Nyberg, W.A., Blaeschke, F., Chen, Y.Y., Li, Z., Bapat, S.P., Diolaiti, M.E., O'leary, P., Vedova, S., Belk, J., Daniel, B., Roth, T.L., Bachl, S., Anido, A.A., Prinzing, B., Ibanez-Vega, J., Lange, S., Haydar, D., Luetke-Eversloh, M., Born-Bony, M., Hegde, B., Kogan, S., Feuchtinger, T., Okada, H., Satpathy, A.T., Shannon, K., Gottschalk, S., Eyquem, J., Krenciute, G., Ashworth, A., and Marson, A
Schmidt, R., Steinhart, Z., Layeghi, M., Freimer, J.W., Bueno, R., Nguyen, V.Q., Blaeschke, F., Ye, C.J., and Marson, A
Blaeschke, F., Stenger, D., Apfelbeck, A., Cadilha, B.L., Benmebarek, M.R., Mahdawi, J., Ortner, E., Lepenies, M., Habjan, N., Rataj, F., Willier, S., Kaeuferle, T., Majzner, R.G., Busch, D.H., Kobold, S., and Feuchtinger, T
News
Very excited to collaborate with Xavi (Spain) and John (USA) on this project funded by the Human Frontiers in Science Program!
Link to press releaseWe will receive the Erna Brunner Award! Looking forward to the award ceremony in May in Tübingen - thank you so much for your support.
Link to press releaseVery excited to welcome Eva to the team who will perform a Master's rotation project in our lab and at the same time support us with her computational expertise.
We just got note that Oren will receive the prestigious EMBO postdoc fellowship! So well-deserved, congratulations!!
Congratulations, Konsti, we are looking forward to working with you!
We are very honored to receive this prestigious award for pediatric oncology research, thank you!
Link to press releaseWe are very excited to welcome our lab manager Monika who will be responsible for lab organization, collaborations, onboarding of new team members, supervising students and scientific projects!
Oren has recently finished his PhD in Ido Amit's lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science and will now work on CAR T cell interactions in solid tumors. Welcome!
We are very thankful to receive these two amazing awards for our research!
Link to press releasePhD student Kathleen joins the lab and will engineer novel CAR T cells for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors. Really excited to start our lab's journey!
Get in touch with us
