Researcher Database
Prof. Dr. Ken Herrmann
University Hospital Essen
Hufelandstr. 55
45147 Essen
Program
Radiation Oncology and Imaging (ROI)
Summary
In the era of precision medicine the concept of theranostics experiences a blooming renaissance. The idea of using the same target and therefore ligand for diagnostic imaging as well therapy is well known since the 1940s for thyroid patients. Despite building the back bone of nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapies for many decades it was only recently that this theranostic concept has been expanded to other innovative targets such as the somatostatin receptor in neuroendocrine tumors, or the prostate specific membrane antigen in prostate cancer.
The research group focuses on the clinical translation of new specific receptor ligands for imaging and therapy. The prostate specific membrane antigen represents the current mainstay of the joint DKTK efforts including diagnostic PET tracers such as 68Ga-PSMA 11 or 18F-PSMA 1007, as well as therapeutic ligands. In addition, numerous new targets are currently under preclinical and clinical investigation.
In addition to theranostics the innovative state of the art hybrid imaging technqiues employing PET/MRI, PET/CT and SPECT/CT is the focus of this group. With special regards to assessing response to therapy, especially in times of groundbreaking immunotherapy demanding for new surrogate markers, the availability of state of the art hybrid imaging systems within the DKTK framework allows for multi-centric collaborations.
DKTK Junior Group Leader for Cancer Systems Biology
Single-cell approaches have not only revealed a wide variety of cell states, characterized by cells exhibiting striking differences in their transcriptional profile, but have also illuminated the mechanisms underlying state transitions in health and disease. Cellular plasticity and adaptive state changes have recently emerged as a basis for therapeutic resistance in cancer, and a better understanding of how cell state transitions are regulated is critical to develop therapeutic approaches that can overcome therapy resistance.
Our research focuses on understanding the mechanisms driving non-genetic cellular heterogeneity and therapy resistance in malignancy. Using novel single-cell sequencing approaches, we seek to develop new experimental and computational strategies to define altered cell states in both, cancer and immune cells. Our aim is to leverage a data driven strategy combined with single cell genomics and systems biology to address the challenges posed by heterogeneity in cancer, and to develop new strategies to overcome it, with the aim of translating laboratory-based findings into the clinic.