ERC Sublethal

From understanding to rational design of next-generation cancer therapies

Cancer is the second most common cause of death in Germany. Mathematical modelling is playing an increasingly important role in the development of new therapies. The development of novel chemoimmune therapies against tumour diseases based on innovative experimental methods and mathematical modelling is the subject of the SubLethal project, which is being funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with an Advanced Grant.
The combination of immunotherapy with cytotoxic and molecular therapies represents a novel strategy for cancer treatments. However, toxicity and insufficient efficacy in many cases remain major obstacles and illustrate the need for improvement based on an understanding of the cellular damage and repair responses to therapy. SubLETHAL aims to develop a combination of immunotherapy with cancer therapies at ultra-low, sublethal doses. The approach is based on the assumption that sublethal treatments reveal vulnerabilities that can be exploited by complementary multi-targeted therapies at ultra-low doses. Single-cell analyses, advanced statistics, and mathematical modelling will be used to optimise the damage profile for each modality in tumour cells.
The ZIH and Andreas Deutsch's department are involved in this interdisciplinary research project led by the physician and tumour specialist Prof. Peter Friedl from the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center (NL) in the areas of data analysis and the development of mathematical models.