Priority Program
Colonization and interaction of tumor cells in the bone microenvironment
News & Blog
Congratulations to Alexander Schäffer from Frankfurt!
It was already a couple of months ago but we are proud to share that Alexander Schäffer, PhD student in the lab of Hind Medyouf (PI of our µBone [...]
The other side of the medal
We are focusing on the disease of Multiple Myeloma (MM), the most common form of bone marrow (BM) cancer in the US and Europe. This cancer is characterized by [...]
New publication by µBone researchers! MERTK blockade supports bone formation and restricts bone metastasis
Osteoblasts are specialized cells in our bones which are important for bone mineralization. A team of researchers from DKFZ-Hector Cancer Institute at the University Medical Center Mannheim* and University [...]
Towards a better understanding of bone metastasis
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite medical progress in the treatment of the primary tumor, most patients suffer and die from metastases at distant locations, such as bone. In contrast to most soft tissue metastases, bone metastases frequently lead to fractures, pain and a poor life quality.
Once established, bone metastases represent a point of no return and are rarely curable. They are even also regarded as a new source for systemic relapse. A better mechanistic understanding of this critical step of tumor progression is essential to target bone metastases, independent of the type of primary tumor.
The key steps of bone metastasis, including the initial colonization of bone by tumor cells and the early interaction with bone cells need to be better understood.
Thus, the fundamental questions
of our consortium are
To obtain mechanistic insights into these questions, the consortium focusses on breast and prostate cancer, reflecting the most common malignancies of women and men with a high propensity for bone metastases.
The µbone consortium will include myeloma bone disease as a prototypical malignant bone microenvironment disease to gain essential lateral insights into osteolytic bone lesions, which are a hallmark of myeloma. The researchers will jointly tackle the knowledge gap on bone metastases and reveal innovative mechanistic concepts of bone-tumor interactions (as a starting point) for subsequent studies to prevent or cure bone metastases.