New breakthrough in Erlangen: Starting professorship for immunotherapy!

New breakthrough in Erlangen: Starting professorship for immunotherapy!

In the world of immunotherapies, a lot is happening at the moment, and this is particularly due to future -oriented research. As the University Clinic Erlangen , the medical faculty of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-nürnberg (FAU) has a new professorship for Cellular optomechanics created. From June 1, 2025, Prof. Dr. Eva Kiermaier take this position and deal intensively with the intracellular structures and their influence on the immune response.

The newly founded Center for Immunotherapy, Biophysics & Digital Medicine (Citible) will be built on the North Research Campus until the end of 2025 and not only resorted the professorship for cellular optomechanics, but also one for nanooptical imaging. In Erlangen, the focus of research is significantly expanded to physics and medicine, which could lay the foundation stone for pioneering approaches in cancer therapy.

A look at research

Prof. Kiermaier will deal with the role of the centrosomes. These are crucial for the cell division and movement. Incorrect duplication can promote uncontrolled cell growth - a fact that is responsible for the development of cancer. Dendritic cells that play an important role in the immune system often show several centrosomes. Here the new knowledge of the prevention of the transformation of normal cells in cancer cells could significantly improve therapies.

in parallel to these developments, a group of scientists on German Cancer Research Center at the University Medical Center Mannheim and at the German consortium Cancer research (DKTK) developed an innovative method for identifying suitable T cells for cellular immunotherapies. With the help of highly implementable single cell sequencing and artificial intelligence, a procedure was developed that can identify personalized T cell receptors against different types of cancer within a few days instead of several months!

technological progress and their importance

A particularly exciting element of this new approach is the AI ​​model "Predictcr", which identifies tumor-reactive T cell receptors with an accuracy of 90 percent. With this, two birds with one flap are put on - the identification time is significantly shortened, and the technology aims to be integrated into clinical practice.

In addition, another research approach relies on the sequencing of tumor sterbut to identify so -called "neoepitope". As the researchers at the DKFZ have to be recognized by the immune system in order to activate the T-cells. Newly developed analysis methods enable these neoepitope to precisely determine these neoepitopes from small tumor tissue samples. A successful example of the application shows that five neoepitopes could be identified in small tissue samples from three patients.

Current developments could revolutionize the future of cancer therapies and offer promising perspectives for patients. Whether in Erlangen or beyond that the research landscape in the field of immunotherapy remains exciting and promising.