New EU consortium project raised at IMB

Melanoma is a malignant skin cancer whose incidence has increased sharply in recent years. Many affected individuals develop brain metastases during the course of their disease, which often cannot be adequately treated with existing therapies. Molecular alterations and mechanisms underlying the therapy resistance of melanoma brain metastases are still insufficiently understood.

This is exactly the point where the EU-funded interdisciplinary STAR-MBM collaborative project starts with the goal to lay the foundations for the treatment of BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) resistant melanoma brain metastases using MET inhibitors. The bioinformatics STAR-MBM sub-project, implemented at the IMB, is responsible for analyzing the measured spatial transcriptome data of melanoma brain metastases to identify genes, signaling pathways, cell types, and spatial cell patterns that distinguish BRAFi-resistant metastases from non-resistant metastases. In addition, gene regulatory networks are learned based on the measured molecular omics data and used for network flow analyses to determine which genes most likely control the development of BRAFi resistance and how these genes interact with the resistance-associated MET-mediated gene regulatory program. Thus, our STAR-MBM sub-project makes an essential contribution to the development of future treatment strategies that aim to overcome BRAFi therapy resistance.

In addition to PD Dr. Michael Seifert from the IMB (Medical Bioinformatics), a total of four other partners are involved in STAR-MBM: Prof. Dr. Josefine Radke (Pathology, University Medicine Greifswald), Dr. Torben Redmer (Medical Biochemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna), Prof. Dr. Frits Thorsen (Biomedicine, University of Bergen) and Prof. Dr. Balázs Győrffy (Bioinformatics, Semmelweis University Budapest).

STAR-MBM is coordinated by Dr. Torben Redmer (coordinator) and PD Dr. Michael Seifert (co-coordinator) and funded with more than 1.6 million euros over a period of three years from April 2026 on as part of a European Partnership for Personalized Medicine (EP PerMed PGxPM2025).