José Carreras Forschungslabor

The bone marrow of a healthy adult produces more than 100.000.000.000 new blood cells every day to replace those lost by wear and tear. Half of these become red blood corpuscles responsible for transporting oxygen around the body, while the others are white cells with a range of immune functions. Because the most common white cells have a life span of just hours to days, while the red corpuscles remain in the bloodstream for around 3 months, normal blood has around 1000x more red than white cells.

This changes in leukemia (Greek “white blood”), in which a disturbance in the balance of cell production in the marrow leads to an abnormal accumulation of white cells. In order to devise new and better treatments, we need to understand how normal blood cell production (hematopoiesis) is controlled and how these controls become overridden in leukemia and related diseases.

More than half a century of research in this area has revealed the ground plan of hematopoiesis, with a single type of multi-potential hematopoietic stem cell giving rise to 8 major blood cell types. The stem cells themselves spend most of their time in a secluded niche in the bone marrow, dividing only rarely to produce daughter cells that move out of the niche and undergo multiple rounds of division. As these cell divide, they gradually take on the characteristics of a particular cell type in a process termed differentiation.

Cell division and differentiation are influenced by signals in the form of growth factors and hormones delivered by the blood stream or by local bone marrow “stromal” cells. Each signal is recognized by a specific receptor on or in the hematopoietic cell. Binding of the signal to the receptor triggers a response known as signal transduction that can affect survival, migration, proliferation and differentiation by changing the pattern of gene expression. Mutations in the genes involved disrupt the normal control and can lead to diseases such as leukemia.

The ultimate aim of all our research is to provide new knowledge and new tools that improve the lives of patients. This means translating the results of laboratory research into clinical applications in a process that makes full use of the close collaboration between our clinical and laboratory scientists. Our research projects are focused on key aspects of cell regulation most relevant to improved diagnostics and the development of novel therapies

• Non-coding RNAs / Epigenetics
• Metabolism
• Inflammation
• Niche

In addition to our work on myeloid leukemias, the appointment of Professor Uwe Platzbecker to the directorship in 2018 brings a fresh impulse with his internationally renowned expertise and achievements in the field of myelodysplasia, a condition in which the balance of white cell production is disturbed by changes in bone marrow niche.

The myelodysplasias are now recognized to involve dysregulated interaction between developing blood cells and the stromal cells that support them. Both cell types accumulate changes in a spiral of events leading ultimately to imbalanced blood cell production and an associated risk of developing leukemia. Studies of MDS therefore provide a new window onto cell interactions that are relevant to normal hematopoiesis, to MDS itself and to leukemia. We look forward to a high degree of synergy between these research areas.

• AG Bone Marrow Failure
• AG Genetics of Myeloid Neoplasia ​ 
• AG Myeloid Research
• AG Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Hematology

Die ECTUL für innovative Tumortherapie und Therapien anderer Disziplinen der Medizin dient der Katalysierung der translationalen Forschung und der Entwicklung neuer Medikamente und Behandlungsansätze unter optimierten Bedingungen.

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Die Ärzte und Wissenschaftler der Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I – Hämatologie und Zelltherapie werden durch spezialisierte Fachkräfte im Bereich klinischer Forschung unterstützt. Die Studieneinheit betreut Phase II – IV Studien sowie NIS nach AMG, sowohl Investigator Initiated Trials als auch Studien der forschenden Pharmaunternehmen. Die Mitarbeiter sind spezialisiert auf die verschiedenen hämatologischen Indikationen.

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