Lecture
MCBIM Mini Symposium: Cancer Treatment and Detection
- Prof. Petra Heffeter (Medical University of Vienna), Prof. Guy Ron (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
- Date
- Thursday 28 August 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- CM.3.23
During the mini symposium we will have two lectures presented by:
Lecturer: Prof. Petra Heffeter (Center of Cancer Research and Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
Title: Development of new strategies to overcome the therapeutic limitations of inorganic anticancer drugs
Time: 11:00 - 11:45
Lecturer: Prof. Guy Ron (Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
Title: Decoding the epigenome for cancer research and diagnostics
Time: 11:45 - 12:30
Prof. Petra Heffeter: Development of new strategies to overcome the therapeutic limitations of inorganic anticancer drugs
Despite all recent therapeutic developments, cancer is still among the main causes of human death. The major problems of the used anticancer drugs are adverse effects and therapy resistance. In order to improve the tumor specificity of the currently available treatment, the characteristic conditions of the malignant tumor need to be exploited. To this end, the research cluster ”Translational Cancer Therapy Research” follows diverse strategies.
In this talk selected examples will be presented such as novel inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which are activated using a cobalt-based prodrug concept by the characteristic hypoxic conditions of the malignant tissue. Moreover, albumin-targeted therapeutics will be presented which exploit not only the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect (comparable to nanoformulations), but also the cancer cell-specific needs for enhanced nutrient supply.
One lead candidate of the research cluster is the ruthenium compound BOLD-100, which is currently in clinical phase II testing. In addition, platinum(IV)-based maleimide-targeted prodrugs are preclinically developed, which show promising anticancer activity in vivo. In addition, our latest multi-action prodrug systems, where additional bioactive moieties are attached, will be presented.
Prof. Guy Ron: Decoding the epigenome for cancer research and diagnostics
Epigenetic regulation of gene expression- the mechanism responsible for establishing and maintaining cellular identities during development- is frequently deregulated in cancer. In a multidisciplinary collaboration, the Shema lab (biology) and Ron lab (physics) develop a rich arsenal of tools to profile the combinatorial epigenetic network.
Our single-cell and single-molecule technologies aim to parse the function of this network and its heterogeneity in human cancer, and utilize it for cancer diagnosis. The single-molecule imaging technology can decode the combinatorial modification patterns of millions of individual nucleosomes, and reveal how these patterns are deregulated in cancer. The single-cell technology is based on an adaptation of CyTOF and allows profiling of a wide panel of epigenetic modifications in thousands of cells, thus revealing epigenetic heterogeneity in cancer.
Our work establishes new concepts for the analysis of epigenetic interactions and heterogeneity in cancer that could be applied to diverse biological systems. In addition, we harness the single-molecule technology as a novel liquid biopsy approach for cancer diagnostics. Our technology, coined EPINUC, enables multi-parametric comprehensive profiling of the Epigenetics of Plasma Isolated Nucleosomes, DNA methylation and cancer-specific protein biomarkers. Applying this analysis to a cohort of plasma samples detected colorectal cancer at high accuracy and sensitivity, even at early stages. Combining EPINUC with direct single-molecule DNA sequencing revealed the tissue-of-origin of the tumor. EPINUC provides multi-layered clinical-relevant information from limited liquid biopsy material, establishing a transformative approach for cancer diagnostics.