Why can cancer cells become resistant to chemotherapy?
Dr. Nitika Taneja and Dr. Ali Akyildiz will receive a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) this year. With the prestigious grant, young scientists can expand their research projects.
Protected fork
Principal investigator and group leader in the Department of Molecular Genetics Dr. Nitika Taneja and her group investigate the role of chromatin remodeling and reorganization in suppressing DNA replication stress. In other words: why can cancer cells become resistant to chemotherapy? She recently discovered another new director of the DNA replication process.
Chemotherapeutic drugs are often initially successful, but over time many patients develop cancer again. This recurrent cancer is then often more aggressive and develops resistance to chemotherapy. The cancer cells are then chemoresistant.
Taneja: ‘My research group focuses on the question of why. Chemo resistance is one of the biggest challenges in the treatment of various cancers. A chemoresistant cell has an active DNA replication mechanism, which ensures unbridled multiplication, despite the chemotherapy.’ The so-called replication forks that ensure multiplication are protected by chromatin.
With the ERC grant, Taneja will investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the modification of chromatin at replication forks.
Taneja: ‘We have developed instruments to observe chromatin at replication forks from a single molecule down to the base-pair resolution of the genome. Using different tumor models, we want to identify new targets aimed at breaking through the chromatin processes, so that we can still attack chemoresistant tumors with chemotherapy.’
Biomechanics and microstructure
Researcher Dr. Ali Akyildiz from the Department of Cardiology (Biomedical Engineering) has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for his research on microstructural biomechanics for cardiovascular risk assessment.
Akyildiz: ‘As engineers we understand why materials can break. Therefore, we can safely build skyscrapers that are almost a kilometer high and airplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound. Many cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, result from the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques in our arteries. We don’t yet fully understand why those plaques rupture.’
Plaque rupture is the mechanical failure of the plaque due to the blood pressure load. Akyildiz: ‘If we understand the mechanism, we can predict the risk of plaque rupture, which can prevent many cardiovascular events. We have many technical tools that allow us to study plaque microstructure to understand plaque ruptures.”
ERC Starting Grants 2022
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