SFB 824:  Imaging for Selection, Monitoring and Individualisation of Cancer Therapies

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: from 2009 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 68647618

The Collaborative Research Centre 824 (SFB 824, http://www.sfb824.de) constitutes a consortium of researchers from natural sciences, biology and clinical sciences, located at both Munich Universities – Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) – as well as at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Munich (HMGU). The SFB 824 was first funded in July 2008 and is now in its 7th funding year. The overriding aim of this interdisciplinary research platform is to develop, validate, translate and ultimately apply cutting-edge imaging methods, which improve, substitute or even create new imaging approaches for early diagnosis, personalized therapeutic stratification and for monitoring of therapy effects in patients with cancer. In recent years, major advances in the molecular characterization of cancer have raised hopes for new molecularly tailored therapeutic strategies in the fight against deadly diseases. However, despite impressive success in preclinical models, clinical response to promising new agents and treatment modalities has been heterogeneous. The need for technologies to identify subgroups of patients likely to benefit from selected therapies targeting specific pathways or biological modalities and to guide and monitor treatment strategies is well recognized and absolutely fundamental for the worldwide advertised concept of precision medicine. Focus of SFB 824 is to meet this challenge by developing and validating new imaging strategies in preclinical tumor models aiming at fast translation into clinical settings. The current SFB 824 application consists of 19 individual projects, which are embedded in three interconnected research packages concentrating on (1) the introduction of new imaging methodology and imaging biomarkers, (2) the preclinical and clinical validation of identified molecular imaging targets and (3) the application of imaging modalities for monitoring effects of cancer therapeutics. SFB 824 is part of the core research strategy of TUM focusing on bioengineering as developmental platform for interdisciplinary research resulting in innovative diagnostic and therapeutic methods and their translation into clinical application. To this end, the consortium will also be integrated into the new Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), a new research building providing an interdisciplinary research environment.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Clinical investigation of Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography for monitoring neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer. (Project Head Ntziachristos, Vasilis )
• A02 - Navigated Intraoperative Nuclear Imaging Probes (NaNuMed) (Project Heads Navab, Ph.D., Nassir ;  Ziegler, Sibylle Ilse )
• A05 - Quantification of tumor metabolism using hyperpolarized 13C metabolic MR (Project Heads Haase, Axel ;  Menzel, Marion Irene ;  Schwaiger, Markus )
• A07 - Imaging of tumor pH and metabolism using hyperpolarized 13C-labelled biosensors and simultaneous PET/MRI (Project Heads Haase, Axel ;  Schilling, Franz )
• A08 - Optimization and in vivo evaluation of innovative theranostic imaging probes using Anticalin and PASylation technologies (Project Heads Mendler, Claudia ;  Schwaiger, Markus ;  Skerra, Ph.D., Arne )
• A09 - Metabolic Imaging in Cancer Cachexia (Project Heads Berriel Diaz, Mauricio ;  Herzig, Stephan ;  Karampinos, Ph.D., Dimitrios )
• A10 - Targeting α5β1 integrin for imaging of tumor angiogenesis and antiangiogenic therapy (Project Head Notni, Johannes )
• B01 - Proteome based analysis and molecular imaging of tumour metabolism for identification of targets for response prediction and assessment of prognosis in gastric cancer (Project Heads Ebert, Matthias ;  Herrmann, Ken ;  Walch, Axel Karl )
• B02 - Molecular imaging with innovative and approved tracers to resolve tumor heterogeneity and predict therapeutic outcome (Project Heads Albert, Nathalie ;  Glass, Rainer )
• B03 - Tumour-homing peptides as molecular smart probes for detection and elimination of multiple myeloma cells (Project Heads Dechow, Tobias ;  Essler, Markus )
• B04 - Theranostic application of functionalized Hsp70-targeting nanoparticles for in vivo tumor imaging and drug delivery after radiotherapy (Project Head Multhoff, Gabriele )
• B05 - CXCR4-imaging in esophageal cancer - diagnosis and prognosis (Project Heads Quante, Michael ;  Schottelius, Margret ;  Wester, Hans-Jürgen )
• B06 - Monitoring of the cellular heterogeneity in human malignant gliomas: Cancer Stem Cells as a target for tumour therapy and imaging (Project Heads Schlegel, Jürgen ;  Zimmer, Claus )
• B07 - Identification and visualization of pre-malignant epithelia during colitis-associated carcinogenesis (Project Head Greten, Florian R. )
• B08 - Identification of early imaging biomarkers of efficacy for anti-angiogenic therapy in neuroendocrine tumors (Project Head Pellegata, Natalia S. )
• B10 - Regulation of angiogenesis by targeting the melanoma microenvironment and its immune cells (Project Head Biedermann, Tilo )
• B11 - Therapy assessment in prostate cancer using imaging surrogate markers for the PI3K-AKT-mTORC- and AR-pathway (Project Heads Eiber, Matthias ;  Wester, Hans-Jürgen )
• B12 - Characterizing intratumoral heterogeneity in glioblastoma: a radiogenomics study (Project Heads Menze, Björn ;  Wiestler, Benedikt )
• C01 - Multimodal Imaging of Vascularization and Angiogenesis for Monitoring and Selection of Treatment of Colorectal Neoplasia (Project Head Meining, Alexander )
• C03 - Imaging and therapeutic targeting of oncogenic marks in lymphoproliferative malignancies (Project Heads Beer, Ambros ;  Keller, Ulrich )
• C04 - Molecular and metabolic imaging and targeting of tumor heterogeneity in pancreatic cancer (Project Heads Siveke, Jens T. ;  Walch, Axel Karl )
• C05 - Evaluation of Imaging of avß3 Expression with PET for Response Assessment of Antiangiogenic Therapies (Project Heads Beer, Ambros ;  Harbeck, Nadia ;  Paepke, Stefan ;  Schwaiger, Markus )
• C06 - Development of prognostic biomarkers using imaging of structural and metabolic heterogeneity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) (Project Heads Braren, Rickmer Früdd ;  Ceyhan, Güralp Onur ;  Menze, Björn )
• C07 - Preclinical development and multimodal imaging of novel immunovirotherapeutics for cancer (Project Head Altomonte, Jennifer )
• C08 - Optimization and individualization of sodium iodide symporter (NIS)-based gene therapy in glioblastoma based on characterization of tumor heterogeneity and tumor micromilieus (Project Head Spitzweg, Christine )
• C09 - Imaging of mechanism-driven biomarkers to develop and monitor precise therapies for pancreatic cancer (PDAC) subtypes (Project Heads Saur, Dieter ;  Schneider, Günter )
• C10 - Development of imaging approaches to monitor tumor-reactive T cells in vivo (Project Heads D`Alessandria, Ph.D., Calogero ;  Krackhardt, Angela )
• Z01 - In-vivo biomarker for multimodal imaging (Project Heads Schwaiger, Markus ;  Wester, Hans-Jürgen )
• Z02 - Comparative morphomolecular pathology and computational validation (Project Heads Esposito, Irene ;  Höfler, Heinz ;  Navab, Ph.D., Nassir ;  Steiger, Katja ;  Weichert, Wilko )
• Z03 - Multimodal Imaging Core (Project Heads Ntziachristos, Vasilis ;  Schilling, Franz )
• Z04 - Central tasks of the collaborative research center (Project Head Schwaiger, Markus )

• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Participating University: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Universität Duisburg-Essen
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Markus Schwaiger