Harnessing molecular vulnerabilities to promote an antitumor immune microenvironment (C03)

• Subject Area: Immunology
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413326622

HG. Rammensee and C. Gouttefangeas will continue to work closely with C01 in order to generate a saturated portrait of immunogenic peptides presented in HLA-restricted fashion on SCLC cells. The team has collaborated with the team in Cologne to elute peptides from MHC complexes on SCLC tumors, resulting in a first catalogue of peptides. Moving forward, they will expand this work further, to focus in particular on peptides resulting from frameshift mutations, as they are generally considered more immunogenic than point mutations. Furthermore, they will work with B01 and C01 to determine the impact of nonsense-mediated decay inhibition on the presentation of such peptides on the surface of SCLC cells. Finally, the team will analyze the functional impact of the newly identified peptide sequences on the generation of relevant T cell responses.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1399: Mechanisms of drug sensitivity and resistance in small cell lung cancer
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Project Heads: Dr. Cécile Gouttefangeas; Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Rammensee