SFB 824: Imaging for Selection, Monitoring and Individualisation of Cancer Therapies

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The Collaborative Research Centre 824 (SFB 824, http://www.sfb824.de) constitutes a consortium of researchers from natural sciences, biology and clinical sciences, located at both Munich Universities – Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) – as well as at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Munich (HMGU). The SFB 824 was first funded in July 2008 and is now in its 7th funding year. The overriding aim of this interdisciplinary research platform is to develop, validate, translate and ultimately apply cutting-edge imaging methods, which improve, substitute or even create new imaging approaches for early diagnosis, personalized therapeutic stratification and for monitoring of therapy effects in patients with cancer. In recent years, major advances in the molecular characterization of cancer have raised hopes for new molecularly tailored therapeutic strategies in the fight against deadly diseases. However, despite impressive success in preclinical models, clinical response to promising new agents and treatment modalities has been heterogeneous. The need for technologies to identify subgroups of patients likely to benefit from selected therapies targeting specific pathways or biological modalities and to guide and monitor treatment strategies is well recognized and absolutely fundamental for the worldwide advertised concept of precision medicine. Focus of SFB 824 is to meet this challenge by developing and validating new imaging strategies in preclinical tumor models aiming at fast translation into clinical settings. The current SFB 824 application consists of 19 individual projects, which are embedded in three interconnected research packages concentrating on (1) the introduction of new imaging methodology and imaging biomarkers, (2) the preclinical and clinical validation of identified molecular imaging targets and (3) the application of imaging modalities for monitoring effects of cancer therapeutics. SFB 824 is part of the core research strategy of TUM focusing on bioengineering as developmental platform for interdisciplinary research resulting in innovative diagnostic and therapeutic methods and their translation into clinical application. To this end, the consortium will also be integrated into the new Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), a new research building providing an interdisciplinary research environment.