As a physician scientist I have been working in the field of molecular pathology, tumor immunology, and pathogenesis of hereditary cancer for more than a decade. My research interests are dedicated to molecular models of tumor formation and their transfer into the clinical application, with a main focus on tumor immunology and immunological approaches for cancer prevention and treatment. My research during the last 10 years as leader of the research group ‘Immune biology of microsatellite-unstable cancer’ has been focused on the identification of relevant neoantigens specifically generated in microsatellite-unstable (MSI-H) cancers. These research activities have led to the first-in-human clinical trial examining a frameshift peptide neoantigen vaccine in MSI-H cancer patients. I complement the studies on cancer vaccines by examining mechanisms of immune evasion that allow MSI-H tumors to develop in spite of pronounced anti-tumoral immune responses.

Currently, I am leading the DKFZ site of the NCI-funded CAP-IT U54 project aiming at developing next-generation cancer immunoprevention approaches. CAP-IT CRI has assembled a collaborative team of scientists and researchers from various institutions, such as Weill Cornell Medicine, DKFZ (German Cancer Research Center), Sloan Kettering Institute, Cornell Engineering, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Broad Institute. The CAP-IT CRI will develop state-of-the-art LNP RNA immunoprevention and immune interception vaccines and provide a technologically powerful platform to jumpstart additional CAP-IT CRI LNP RNA vaccine projects.

It is anticipated that CAP-IT CRI will propel both Lynch syndrome and lung non-solid nodules (NSN) vaccines to NCI PREVENT and CP-CTNET clinical trials within the next 5 years and FDA approval/clinical translation within ten years. I am also the Project Leader of the INDICATE Network that has been established to understand the role of HLA genotype in determining cancer risk among Lynch syndrome carriers.