Mission

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a prototypic malignacy that can be controlled by targeted therapy. Patients nowadays have a normal life expectancy and a certain proportion of patients remain in remission after stopping their medication. Still, response kinetics and success rates vary, which can be attributed in part to differences in the immune system. According to our findings, the level of molecular response is associated with a certain level of inflammation, which can be predicted by plasma levels of soluble CD62L, an immune regulatory protein. Within this project, our mission is to undertake validating experiments in bigger patient cohorts to confirm the usefulness of CD62L as a marker of inflammation.

viele Laborproben

Research

Cancer can only develop when the immune system is not able to eradicate the malignant cells. In recent years, therapies strengthening the immune system have been implemented that lead to complete remission in some patients but have no effects in others. The exact mode of action of these therapies and the mechanisms causing primary and acquired resistance are not completely understood. Currently, we are using high dimensional methods, such as flow cytometry, single cell sequencing and multiplex imaging, to investigate in detail the composition, function and interaction of cells in the tumor tissue in order to determine the pleiotropic effects of immune therapies and to find new treatment approaches.

Research Team Members

PD Dr. Sieghart Sopper

Project Leader

sieghart.sopper@i-med.ac.at

Elisabeth Hoflehner

Lab Manager

elisabeth.hoflehner@i-med.ac.at

Dr. Beate Posch

Postdoctoral researcher

beate.posch@i-med.ac.at

Manuel Trebo, M.Sc.

Doctoral Student

manuel.trebo@i-med.ac.at

Dr. Janine Steichen

Doctoral Student

Martina Sykora, M.Sc.

Research Associate

Dr. Silvia Gasteiger

Doctoral Student

Daniel Gürke

Diploma Student

Our aim is to further comprehend the molecular factors behind the onset of cancer.

Publications

Selected Publications

  • Schoepf A. M., Gebhart M., Federspiel M., Heidegger I., Puhr M., Hotze M., Kwiatkowski M., Pircher A., Wolf D., Sopper, S., Gust R. & Salcher S. Eradication of Therapy-Resistant Cancer Stem Cells by Novel Telmisartan Derivatives. J Med Chem., 68(1):287-306. (2025).
  • Mildner F. O., Sykora, M., Hackl H., Amann A., Zelger B., Sprung S., Buch M. L., Nocera F., Moser P., Maier H., Augustin F., Manzl C., Kocher F., Pircher A., Lindenmann J., Mykoliuk I., Raftopoulou S., Kargl J., Wolf D., Sopper, S., & Gamerith G. Soluble PD-L1 shows no association to relapse and overall survival in early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Lung Cancer, 196:107955. (2024).
  • Salcher S., Heidegger I., Untergasser G., Fotakis G., Scheiber A., Martowicz A., Noureen A., Krogsdam A., Schatz C., Schäfer G., Trajanoski Z., Wolf D., Sopper, S. & Pircher A. Comparative analysis of 10X Chromium vs. BD Rhapsody whole transcriptome single-cell sequencing technologies in complex human tissues. Heliyon, 10(7):e28358. (2024).
  • Salcher, S., Sturm, G., Horvath, L., Untergasser, G., Kuempers, C., Fotakis, G., Panizzolo, E., Martowicz, A., Trebo, M., Pall, G., Gamerith, G., Sykora, M., Augustin, F., Schmitz, K., Finotello, F., Rieder, D., Perner, S., Sopper, S., Wolf, D., Pircher, A. & Trajanoski, Z. High-resolution single-cell atlas reveals diversity and plasticity of tissue-resident neutrophils in non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Cell, 40(12):1503-1520.e8. (2022).
  • Boesch, M., Sykora, M., Gasteiger, S., Baty, F., Brutsche, M. H. & Sopper, S. OMIP 077: Definition of all principal human leukocyte populations using a broadly applicable 14-color panel. Cytometry A, 101(1):15-20. (2022).

All Publications

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Funding

Links