Project overview Joint Funding
HematoTrac (Hematopoietic trajectories in cancer)
Program: EOM Funding Line: INNOVATION Project type: research project Entity: brain tumor Status: current
We have recently linked hematopoietic cell infiltration in malignant brain cancers to overall survival. Their spatiotemporal trajectories and crosstalk to the tumor microenvironment (TME) remain elusive and will be the focus of this reverse-translational approach. We use clinical imaging-guided glioblastoma tissue sampling to reveal transcriptional and epigenetic trajectories of hematopoietic stem and precursor cells (HSPCs) using multi-omic analyses and multiplex imaging at single cell level and spatial resolution. Innovative technology development and computational algorithms will adopt cellular barcoding to explore the dynamics of cell-cell communication and clonal HSPC trajectories in the TME. The resulting 4D-multi-omics platform becomes accessible in a co-educational attempt via the DKTK School of Oncology to a broad scientific community – while it is being developed. The project therefore simultaneously teaches the next generation of leaders in the field of translational oncology and benefits from their swarm intelligence.