Professor in Molecular Radiobiology at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Medical University of Vienna
As a molecular biologist, I am passionate about understanding how radiation triggers cellular signaling pathways that activate the immune system to kill cancer cells. Within the PAIR project we focus on pancreatic cancer – a highly prevalent cancer with one of the lowest survival rates. Due to late diagnosis, surgical resection is often not possible and available treatment strategies such as immunotherapy are ineffective due to immunosuppresive tumor microenvironment. By comparing the effects of conventional photon radiation and particle radiation with protons or carbon ions, we aim to identify radiation modalities that can induce immunogenic response in pancreatic cancer. Our ultimate goal is to identify small molecule inhibitors that can potentiate the effects of radiation by targeting immune signaling, DNA damage response and cell cycle checkpoints. Our studies are carried out in cancer cell lines and mouse models.
Being embedded in the highly interdisciplinary environment of the PAIR project and exposed to complementary expertise in dosimetry, imaging, mass spectrometry and integrative data analysis will facilitate our path towards uncovering new treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer.