Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research

  • Functional and Structural Genomics
  • KiTZ
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Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Grünewald

Head of Division

The mission of the division of Translational Pediatric Sarcomas Research is to improve treatment options for children, adolescents and young adults affected by sarcomas. In addition, we explore less aggressive therapies and innovative strategies to overcome tumor drug resistance.

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Our Research areas

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Description (caption)

 

To accomplish our mission, the division Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research is comprised of three teams whose collaboration gives way to synergetic effects:

The team Translational Genomics (Prof. Dr. Dr. T. Grünewald & Dr. Dr. Jing Li) systematically establishes multi-dimensional omics-datasets of a large number of pediatric sarcomas and correlates molecular alterations with clinical data to identify new driver mutations, disease-relevant drug targets and prognostic/predictive biomarkers, and to create resources for hypothesis generation and functional validation for future projects.

The team Mechanisms of Cancer Progression (Dr. F. Cidre-Aranaz) aims at deconvoluting the multilayered process underlying cancer progression and metastasis. For this purpose, systems biology approaches based on multi-omics data and clinical information with functional in vitro and in vivo experiments are combined to identify treatable vulnerabilities in pediatric sarcomas that can prevent metastasis.

The team Innovative Therapies (Dr. S. Ohmura) is investigating potential therapeutic targets for pediatric sarcomas in preclinical models. The focus here lies in developing and testing new targeted therapy approaches, including immunotherapy, that enable more effective therapy with fewer side effects, especially for patients with chemo resistant tumors.

Our division

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    Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Grünewald

    Head of Division

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    Richard Arndt

    Doctoral Student

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    Veronika Bursic

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    Martha Carreno Gonzalez

    Doctoral Student

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    Kalina Chavdarova

    Doctoral Student

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    Dr. Florencia Cidre Aranaz

    Deputy Head of Division and Team Leader

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    Anna Ehlers

    Doctoral Student

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    Rafat Esso

    Doctoral Student

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    Tobias Faehling

    Doctoral Student

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    Linus Fischer

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    Florian Geyer

    Doctoral Student

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    Nadine Gmelin

    Research Technician

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    Nina Hahnen

    Doctoral Student

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    Maite Hannemann

    Team assistant

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    Dr. Kimberley Hanssen

    Post-Doc

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    Paul Heinemann

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    Dr. Clémence Henon

    Post-Doc

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    Annika Jeschke

    Doctoral Student

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    Maxim Kafka

    Doctoral Student

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    Sabrina Knoth

    Technical Assistant

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    Dr. Maximilian Knott

    Post-Doc

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    Zuzanna Anna Kolodynska

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    Stefanie Kutschmann

    Technical Assistant

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    J-Ann Lego

    Doctoral student

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    Paul Lempka

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    Dr. Jing Li

    Co-Team Leader

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    Lovro Marjanovic

    Doctoral student

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    Dr. Julian Musa

    Scientific staff

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    David Friedrich Obermeier

    Doctoral student

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    Dr. Shunya Ohmura

    Team Leader

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    Carla Panisello Aranda

    Doctoral student

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    Dr. Eleonora Prodi

    Staff scientist

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    Alina Ritter

    Doctoral student

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    Dr. Laura Romero Pérez

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    Melissa Schmucker

    Doctoral student

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    Marleen Trapp

    Technical Assistant

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    Timo Trinczek

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    Pablo Táboas Outón

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    David Wolfhard

    Master thesis student

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    Angelina Yershova

    Doctoral student

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    Felina Zahnow

    Technical Assistant

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    Malenka Zimmermann

Selected Publications

2025 - Nat Commun 16, 380 (2025)
2021 - Nat Commun 2021 Sept;12(1):5356

Therapeutic targeting of the PLK1-PRC1-axis triggers cell death in genomically silent childhood cancer

2020 - Nat Commun 2020 May;11(1):2423

Oncogenic hijacking of a developmental transcription factor evokes vulnerability toward oxidative stress in Ewing sarcoma

2019 - Nat Commun 2019 Sept;10(1):4128

Cooperation of cancer drivers with germline regulatory variants shapes clinical outcomes

All Publications

Teaching & Lectures

Are you currently enrolled at Heidelberg University and would like to learn more about our research? Please check our curricular and extracurricular classes as well as the Lecture Series "Sarcoma Biology Club" at a glance following this link.
Teaching

Directions

This is our address:

German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
Division of Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research / B410
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
69120 Heidelberg
Germany

We are located in the main building on the 6th floor:

Room 075 - Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Grünewald
Room 074 - Team leaders: Dr. Florencia Cidre-Aranz / Dr. Shunya Ohmura / Dr. Jing Li
Roomm 01.06.070  - Team assistant: Maite Hannemann 
Room 058, 061-069    - Laboratory

For further information how to find us, please follow this link.

Get in touch with us

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Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Grünewald

Head of Division
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