Wir überwinden Grenzen

Freiburg physician Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser receives an ERC Advanced Grant worth 2.5 million euros / His research aims to develop new approaches for the prevention and treatment of severe complications following stem cell transplants

A stem cell donation is a promising therapy for many leukemia patients. But the therapy has risks: It is not uncommon for leukemia to return and in around half of those treated, the transferred immune cells attack the recipient's tissue. Such an acute graft-versus-host disease, aGvHD for short, is just as life-threatening as a possible leukemia relapse. With an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros, the European Research Council is funding Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser from the Faculty of Medicine - University of Freiburg, who, together with his team, is researching new approaches to improve the recovery of patients after a stem cell transplant.

"We were able to show that an acute rejection reaction often starts in the intestine because it loses its barrier function," says Zeiser, Head of the Department of Tumor Immunology at the Department of Medicine I at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg. "In further studies, we have shown that blood cancer cells can manipulate and even switch off immune cells with the help of lactic acid. We want to find out exactly how these two processes take place. Our aim is to find new, targeted therapies with which we can stop severe complications after a stem cell transplant right from the start," says Zeiser, who is also the spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Center 1479 OncoEscape.

"The renewed funding of Robert Zeiser with an ERC grant is a great personal achievement. At the same time, it confirms the strength of the University and the Faculty of Medicine - University of Freiburg in the fields of immunology and cancer medicine, which have grown ever closer together in recent years," said Prof. Dr. Lutz Hein, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine - University of Freiburg and member of the Board of the Medical Center of Freiburg.

The European Research Council (ERC) grant is one of the highest and most prestigious research grants in Europe, providing a maximum of 2.5 million euros. Zeiser had already successfully acquired an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2016. The ERC aims to fund particularly ambitious projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The ERC Advanced Grant is awarded to established scientists who are leaders in their field and who have made fundamental research achievements in the last ten years.

Further information:
Website of the European Research Council: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-2022-advanced-grants-results

Prof. Zeiser's research group: www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/medizin1/forschung/experimentelle-forschung/zeiser-laboratory

SFB OncoEscape: www.sfb1479.uni-freiburg.de

Image 1: Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser
Image source: private

Image 2: Intestinal cells (blue) produce mucus (pink) and thus form a highly efficient barrier (double arrow) against bacteria (red). Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser is investigating why this barrier often becomes fragile after stem cell transplants.
Image source: Medical Center - University of Freiburg