Where lie your clinical and scientific interests?

Since my MD student fellowship at the sarcoma research group of Wolfgang Hartmann (Institute of Pathology, University Hospital of Bonn), I have been fascinated by cancer biology and treatment and quickly discovered, that I wanted to become medical oncologist.

As a clinician scientist at the Lung Cancer Group Cologne, I learned that the biggest medical need was the treatment of acquired resistance to targeted treatments and the understanding of the driving mechanisms. Inspired by the fruitful interaction with the Institute of Pathology and other research groups, I decided to join the genomics research group of Axel Hillmer in January 2020.

The aim of my research there, is to understand the mechanisms that drive genomic and transcriptomic heterogeneity in acquired resistance in lung cancer and to derive potential treatments. In particular, I seek to understand why in the beginning distinct mechanisms of resistance are selected for by the same treatment and why finally increasing intra‐tumor heterogeneity limits the efficacy of targeted treatments in the clinical setting. Therefore, I first focused on the understanding of the biology of drug‐tolerant persister cells and pre‐existing resistant subclones using single cell transcriptomics in primary cell lines and patient‐derived cell models.

Besides this, I will continue to coordinate ongoing and future clinical projects, such as a phase II investigator‐initiated trial, that investigates the role of a new bispecific antibody in the treatment of resistance to EGFR-targeted drugs.

Where lie your clinical and scientific interests?

I have always been interested in the deeper understanding of molecular mechanisms in cancer and fascinated by the rapid progress in this field in recent years. Pediatric oncology offers the combination of taking good clinical care of the young patients and personally accompanying them and their families for a long period of time with ongoing scientific progress in the field. Unfortunately, treatment still remains challenging in a considerable set of our patients, who may go through multiple lines of treatment with limited chances of long-time survival. I am particularly interested in the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma, which is characterized by highly heterogenous clinical courses.
The focus of my project is to unravel new mechanisms of high-risk neuroblastoma pathogenesis, which contribute to this heterogeneity. Identification of new driver mutations would enable a deeper understanding of tumorigenesis and might enable new therapeutical approaches for this disease.