Metabolic reprogramming is a key feature of cancer development with the Warburg effect being the most prominent example. Furthermore, tumours have a characteristic metabolic microenvironment that influences cancer progression and anti-cancer immune responses. These distinguishing features are increasingly being perceived as therapeutic targets. Freiburg Metabolism researchers study the metabolic characteristics of specific cancer entities and develop methods to utilize these for therapy. The community is increasingly interested in the connections between immune and cancer metabolism.
Petya Apostolova 
Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and Medical Center – Department of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation
RESEARCH: Cancer Metabolism, Immunometabolism, Acute Leukemia, Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Graft-versus-host disease, Immunotherapy, Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced autoimmunity
METHODS: Untargeted Metabolomics and Lipidomics by MS, Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, Acute Leukemia and Allogeneic Stem Cell transplantation mouse models
TECHNOLOGIES: Proficiency in the analysis of raw data from LC-MS metabolomics and lipidomics (targeted, untargeted and tracing experiments)
Robert Zeiser
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Internal Medicine I (Hematology and Oncology)
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Cancer Immunotherapy, Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Graft-versus-Host Disease, Oncogenic Signaling
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of signaling in tumor cells, animal models for acute leukemia and melanoma, Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, bioluminescence imaging
Simone Hettmer
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Center for Pediatrics, Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
RESEARCH: Cancer Metabolism, Metabolic Signalling, Signal transduction, Amino Acids, Developmental Biology, Signal Transduction, Cell Biology, Sarcomas, Oncogenic regulation of tumor metabolism, Antimetabolites as anti-cancer therapeutic agents
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism and Signaling in tumor cells, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, Small Molecule Screening, Untargeted Metabolomics by MS and NMR (outsourced and via collaborations)
TECHNOLOGIES: Mouse and tissue culture models of sarcoma
Maria Stella Carro
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Department of Neurosurgery
RESEARCH: Epigenetic regulation of fatty acids synthesis enzymes, Cancer Metabolism, Regulation of lipids uptake, Hypoxia, Mesenchymal transformation in glioblastoma, Epigenetics, Tumor invasion and migration, Regulation of protein cleavage, Tumor angiogenesis.
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of lipid synthesis enzymes, Gene expression analysis by RNAseq and qPCR, Identification of protein-protein interaction, Mice xenografts
TECHNOLOGIES: Seahorse XFe96 Flux Analyzer (Agilent), Hypoxic Workstations i2 and H35 (Whitley)
Olaf Groß
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Neuropathology
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Cancer Metabolism, Metabolic Signalling, Mitochondria, Innate Immune Sensing, Macrophage Signal Transduction and Cell Biology, Cell Death, Inflammatory, Infectious, Cardiovascular and Nervous System Diseases
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, Small Molecule Screening, Untargeted Metabolomics by MS and NMR (outsourced and via collaborations)
TECHNOLOGIES: Seahorse XFe96 Flux Analyzer (Agilent), Hypoxic Workstations i2 and H35 (Whitley), Multidrop Reagent Dispenser (Thermo)
Melanie Börries
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine
RESEARCH: Multi-Omics data analysis, cancer metabolism, (genetic) analyses of metabolic signaling, identification of disease biomarkers and potential therapeutic options, pipeline development for high-throughput data for clinical research and applications (e.g. Molecular Tumor Board)
METHODS: machine learning methods, development and application of standardized workflows for the analysis, integration and visualization of omics data, single-cell analysis, creating user-friendly databases
TECHNOLOGIES: High-performance computer cluster, 10x Genomics
Jens Timmer
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics – Institute of Physics
RESEARCH: Cancer Metabolism, Mathematical Modelling, Signal Transduction, Developmental Biology, Immune System, Synthetic Biology
METHODS: Dynamic Pathway Modelling, Parameter Estimation in Differential Equations, Uncertainty Analysis, Experimental Design
TECHNOLOGIES: High Performance Computing
Michael Bock
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Department of Radiology, Medical Physics
RESEARCH: Medical Imaging, MRI, Method Development, X-nuclear MRI, Oxygen-17 MRI, Tumor Metabolism, Metabolic Rate of Oxygen Consumption, Warburg Effect
METHODS: Dynamic 17O-MRI, image reconstruction, modeling of oxygen uptake and metabolism, parameter analysis, radio-frequency coil construction
TECHNOLOGIES: Clinical 3T MRI Systems (Siemens PRISMA), radio-frequency laboratory, post-processing algorithms
Anne-Kathrin Classen
Faculty of Biology – Center for Biological Systems Analysis, CIAS
RESEARCH: Wound and Cancer Metabolism, Signal Transduction, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Chronic Wounds, Regeneration, Senescence
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Confocal Microscopy, Metabolome analysis (outsourced)
TECHNOLOGIES: In Vivo Drosophila Models, Intraepithelial and Inter-organ Communication
Melanie Föll
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Surgical Pathology
RESEARCH: Spatially resolved metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics, tumor microenvironment, tumor heterogeneity, mass spectrometry and metabolomic data science, mass spectrometry method development
METHODS: MALDI mass spectrometry imaging, computational tools and workflows (in Galaxy platform), multi-omics data integration, machine learning, tissue based mass spectrometry
TECHNOLOGIES: MALDI-TOF/TOF, laser capture microdissection, European Galaxy Server
Ian Gentle
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute for Microbiology and Hygiene
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Cancer Metabolism, Mitochondria, Innate Immune Sensing, Macrophages, Signal Transduction, Cell Biology, Cell Death, Inflammation, Crosstalk between cell death signalling and metabolism, Authophagy, metabolic regulation of transcription factors in AML
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Fluorescence microscopy, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, CRISPR-Cas9
Dietrich Ruess
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Department of General and Visceral Surgery
RESEARCH: Cancer Metabolism, Autophagy, Mitochondria, Pancreatic Cancer, Targeted Therapy, Tumor Microenvironment, Immunooncology
METHODS: Indirect Interference with mutant KRAS driven tumor cell intrinsic metabolic rewiring, Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation, Small Molecule Evaluation, Seahorse, Targeted Metabolomics and Metabolic Flux Analysis by MS (via collaboration)
