Institution
German Cancer Research Center
Recent research
- BiologyOpen access
Predicting genome-wide functional constraints with GPN-Star
Abstract Genomic language models have emerged as a powerful approach for learning genome-wide functional constraints directly from DNA sequences 1 . However, standard genomic language models adapted from natural language processing often require large model sizes and computationa...
- BiologyOpen access
Spot-based spatial transcriptomics (ST) allows for unbiased gene expression analysis within tissue architecture, overcoming the limitations of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) by preserving spatial context. However, the high spatial resolution in ST leads to cellular hetero...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Abstract Pathogenic germline variants in SDHB are associated with an increased risk for tumors such as pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma. However, limited functional evidence for rare variants poses a major challenge for clinical decision making. To systematically investigate po...
- BiologyOpen access
MemBrain v2: an end-to-end tool for the analysis of membranes in cryo-electron tomography
Abstract Cryo-electron tomography provides unique insights into macromolecular complexes in their native environments, yet membrane analysis remains a major bottleneck due to low signal-to-noise ratios, missing wedge artifacts and the complexity of membrane-associated particles....
- BiologyOpen access
Sleep duration links to biological aging clocks: when sleep gets tough, aging gets going
In a recent large-scale study of biological ageing clocks published in Nature , the MULTI Consortium now shows sleep, often treated as a lifestyle habit, is a measurable sign of temporal biology. Their work suggests that deviations from optimal sleep duration are associated with...
- Health & Medicine
Quality standards for preclinical research in cardio-oncology
Preclinical research in cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTR-CVT) is a major domain of cardio-oncology and has provided biological explanation for the cardiovascular adverse effects of many cancer therapies. However, the choice of the experimental models to investi...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Abstract Macrophages are among the most abundant immune cells in the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumor microenvironment (TME) and play a key role in regulating the immunosuppressive niche that facilitates tumor growth. Although recent three-dimensional (3D) culture sy...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Background: Myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDSs) are clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders associated with ineffective hematopoiesis, chronic inflammation, and increased cardiovascular morbidity. Although metabolic dysregulation has been implicated in MDS pathogenesis, systemic me...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Abstract Background Radioactively labeled somatostatin analogs (SSAs) are used in PET imaging of meningiomas due to the high expression of somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtype 2. 18 F-labeled SSTR-tracers offer several economic and logistical advantages over 68 Ga-labeled tracers...
- BiologyOpen access
Abstract Pathogenic variants in HNRNPK are associated with autosomal dominant Au-Kline syndrome (AKS, Au-Kline-Okamoto syndrome, OMIM #616580). This syndrome is characterized by developmental delay and intellectual disability, hypotonia, and distinctive facial features. Despite t...
- BiologyOpen access
Abstract SnoRNAs are highly expressed in AML and have implications in leukemogenesis and leukemic maintenance. SnoRNAs can be further processed into snoRNA-derived RNAs (sdRNAs). The role of sdRNAs in AML and healthy hematopoiesis remains largely elusive. We characterized sdRNA a...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
A five-phase evaluation framework for diagnostic and predictive medical artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced rapidly across diagnostic, prognostic, and clinical decision-support applications, yet the pathway from laboratory performance to demonstrable clinical benefit remains fragmented and inconsistently defined. Existing evaluations rely heavi...
- AI & ComputingOpen access
Abstract While federated learning (FL) enables collaborative medical image segmentation without centralizing sensitive data, real-world deployment is frequently complicated by cross-site label imperfections such as contour disagreement, missing or additional structures, and confu...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Abstract Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo‐HSCT) is a curative treatment option for a significant proportion of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and it is generally recommended when the relapse risk without allo‐HSCT outweighs the estimated non‐r...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Abstract ASTRACT Background Prostate-specific membrane antigen-targeted radioligand therapy (PSMA-RLT) demonstrates clinical efficacy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), yet robust biomarkers for dynamic treatment monitoring and resistance remain lacking....
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Oncofetal cell states: cell plasticity drives invasion in premetastatic colorectal tumors
In a recent publication in Nature , Buissant des Amorie et al. provide evidence that an oncofetal cell state which is associated with advanced disease, chemoresistance and metastatic competence emerges already in early-stage T1 colorectal cancer (CRC). Intriguingly, oncofetal cel...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
miR-155-5p drives coordinated tumor and macrophage reprogramming across multiple cancer entities
Abstract Background T cell-based immunotherapies have improved cancer treatment, however their efficacy is frequently limited by tumor-intrinsic resistance mechanisms and by the immune suppressive tumor microenvironment, counteracting tumor specific immune responses through impai...
- Health & MedicineOpen access
Abstract Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies, characterized by rapid metastatic dissemination and poor overall survival. Despite harboring excessive alterations, expectedly resulting in immunogenic neoantigens, patients with SCLC remain largel...
- Health & Medicine
Glypican-3, a cell-surface proteoglycan, is overexpressed in most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). Recently, the glypican-3–targeted PET tracer [68Ga]Ga-RAYZ-8009 was shown to enable noninvasive detection of HCC. This retrospective analysis evaluates the correlation between tumo...
- BiologyOpen access
Endolysosomal dysfunction is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies, yet underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study investigates the role of sphingolipid metabolism in maintaining endolysosomal membrane integrity and its impact on tau aggregatio...