Scientific Background Areas & Projects

After the overall very positive evaluation of our scientific achievements and most groups participating in the first funding period of this SFB, the research team was partially restructured to form an even more competitive research consortium. We thereby took into account the criticisms raised by the referees and no longer investigate the role of insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGF-BPs) in cancer. Furthermore, we committed ourselves to an achievement-based membership, competitive internal funding policy and established a Young Investigator Program within the SFB in order to establish an internationally recognized center for Oncoscience in Austria. Two investigators working on different aspects and models of cancer were newly recruited. Inge Tinhofer from the LIMCR in Salzburg (www.limcr.at), working on B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B CLL) in a more clinical setting ("Bench-to-Bedside") who meanwhile unfortunately moved to Berlin. Her agendas were taken over by Tanja Hartman temporarily. Manuela Baccarini, a member of the Max Perutz Laboratories in Vienna (www.mfpl.ac.at), working on the role of RAF-kinases in tumor formation with ample expertise in signaling and the use of mouse tumor models. Manulea Baccarini was already a long lasting collaborator of the Huber group and her unique expertise is beneficial for many SFB021 projects. At the same time we extended and further strengthen the clinical expertise by the inclusion of Günther Gastl as an associate member of the SFB, who is also the head of the clinical branch of the Oncoscience research focus at the Innsbruck Medical University. Due to the recent appointment of Ludger Hengst at the Biocenter it was also possible to strengthen our expertise in cell cycle regulation implementing a project on the Cdk inhibitor p27Kip1. Finally, Reinhard Fässler from the Max Plank Institute in Martinsried (www.biochem.mpg.de/en/index.html) joined the SFB and opened up a new and important research avenue within the SFB on cell adhesion and migration signaling. Together, these new additions clearly strengthen our current expertise and build the basis of a powerful research consortium able to tackle the challenges in front line cancer research. In addition, the increasing need for expertise in bioinformatics and systems analyses was recognized and honored by the implementation of enabling platforms such as Proteomics and Transcriptomics. These "enabling technologies" platform provide an unique opportunities for the SFB021 research teams in different scientific areas to perform unbiased screens. However, we also realized that the platform-based data generation generated an increasing demand for professional support in data processing. This fact was honored by the university, which now finances a Bioinformatics junior group, headed by Johannes Rainer, to satisfy this need. In order to foster local expertise and integrate young scientists with high potential in the research consortium for future rounds of applications, the SFB and the Tiroler Zukunftsstiftung currently also supports three Junior Research groups working in the field of tumor immunology (Domnik Wolf), epigentics (Heidi Fiegl) and vesicle trafficking (David Teis).