Innate Immuno-Oncology
and Translational Cancer
Immunotherapy
Arbeitsgruppe Prof. Dr. med. Heidegger
Research Interests
Research in our lab focuses on the interaction between immune cells and cancer cells, with particular interest in innate immune mechanisms. We are interested in the molecular patterns in malignant cells that are detected by innate immunity and thus initiate cancer immunosurveillance. We want to understand why these processes seem to fail frequently and how they can be augmented in cancer immunotherapies. Hereby, we want to explore how the innate immune system contributes to clinically established immunotherapy such as checkpoint inhibitors and cellular therapies including allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and CAR-T cell therapy.
Methodologically, we use somatic mutagenesis in different murine cancer models including solid malignancies, acute myeloid leukemia and lymphoma to genetically delete specific components of innate immune pathways to decipher their roles in cancer immunosurveillace and -therapy. We focus our work on patient-centered clinical problems and aim for validation of preclinical findings in bio samples from defined patient cohorts. Ultimately, we strive for rapid translation of murine data to meaningful benefit for cancer patients.
Heidegger S*, Wintges A*, Stritzke F, Bek S, Steiger K, Koening PA, Göttert S, Engleitner T, Öllinger R, Nedelko T, Fischer JC, Makarov V, Winter C, Rad R, van den Brink MRM, Ruland J, Bassermann F, Chan TA, Haas T, Poeck H.
RIG-I activation is critical for responsiveness to checkpoint blockade.
Science Immunology, 2019.
Heidegger S*, Kreppel D*, Bscheider M, Stritzke F, Nedelko T, Wintges A, Bek S, Fischer JC, Graalmann T, Kalinke U, Bassermann F, Haas T, Poeck H.
RIG-I agonists synergize with checkpoint blockade to boost the efficacy of anticancer vaccines.
EBioMedicine, 2019.
Bek S, Stritzke F, Wintges A, Nedelko T, Böhmer DFR, Fischer JC, Haas T, Poeck H*, Heidegger S*.
Targeting intrinsic RIG-I signaling turns melanoma cells into type I interferon-releasing cellular antitumor vaccines.
OncoImmunology, 2019.
Duewell P, Heidegger S, Kobold S.
Innate Immune Stimulation in Cancer Therapy.
Hematology/Oncology Clinics, 2019.
Fischer JC, Bscheider M, Eisenkolb G, Lin CC, Wintges A, Otten V, Lindemans CA, Heidegger S, Rudelius M, Monette S, Porosnicu Rodriguez KA, Calafiore M, Liebermann S, Lui C, Lienenklaus S, Weiss S, Kalinke U, Ruland J, Peschel C, Shono Y, Docampo M, Velardi E, Jeng RR, Hanash AM, Dudakov JA, Haas T, van den Brink MRM, Poeck H.
RIGI/MAVS and STING signaling promote gut intergrity during irradiation- and immune-mediated tissue injury.
Science Translational Medicine, 2017.
Heidegger S, Haas T, and Poeck H.
Cutting Edge in IFN Regulation: Inflammatory Caspases Cleave cGAS.
Immunity, 2017.
Haas T*, Heidegger S*, Wintges A, Bscheider M, Bek S, Fischer JC, Eisenkolb G, Schmickl M, Spoerl S, Peschel C, Poeck H,
Card9 controls Dectin-1-induced T-cell cytotoxicity and tumor growth in mice.
European Journal of Immunology, 2017.
Heidegger S, van den Brink MR, Haas T, and Poeck H.
The role of pattern-recognition receptors in graft-versus-host disease and graft-versus-leukemia after allogeneic stem call transplantation.
Frontiers in immunology, 2014.
Heidegger S*, Anz D*, Stephan N, Bohn B, Herbst T, Fendler WP, Suhartha N, Sandholzer N, Kobold S, Hotz C, Eisenächer K, Radtke-Schuller S, Endres S, Bourquin C.
Virus-associated activation of innate immunity induces rapid disruption of Peyer's patches in mice.
Blood, 2013.
Schuller VJ*, Heidegger S*, Sandholzer N, Nickels PC, Suhartha NA, Endres S, Bourquin C, and Liedl T.
Cellular immunostimulation by CpG-sequence-coated DNA origami structures.
ACS nano, 2011.
*contributed equally
Principal Investigator
PD Dr. med. Simon Heidegger
Laboratory: Center for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM)
Associate PI
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Poeck
E-Mail (link sends e-mail)
Post Docs
Dr. Dr. med. Erik Thiele-Orberg (MD, Ph.D), Postdoctoral Fellow
(TUM, Department of Hematology and Oncology, since 2017)
Scholar Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung Forschungskolleg (Start 11/2017).
Darmkrebs-Präventionspreis 2017,
Clinician-Scientist-Programm DGIM 2019,
Vision-Zero-Award 2019,
Alix Pianka (MD), Postdoctoral Fellow
(TUM, Department of Hematology and Oncology, since 2018)
Dr. med. Peter May (MD), Postdoctoral Fellow
(TUM, Department of Hematology and Oncology, since 2020)
DFG SFB1335 Gerok Scholarship 2020
Graduate (PhD) Students
Sascha Göttert (M.Sc.), PhD Student
(TUM Graduate School, Doktorandenprogramm Experimentelle Medizin, since 2018)
Associated with DFG SFB 1371
Primarily supervised by Prof. Poeck
Laura Joachim (M.Sc.), PhD Student
(TUM Graduate School, Doktorandenprogramm Experimentelle Medizin, since 2019)
Associated with DFB SFB 1335
Primarily supervised by Prof. Poeck
Nardine Soliman (M.Sc.), PhD Student
(TUM Graduate School, Programm Medical Life Science and Technology, since 2020)
Medical Doctoral Students
Florian Stritzke, cand. med.
(TUM Graduate School Promotionsprogramm Translationale Medizin, since 2016)
Primarily supervised by Prof. Poeck
Stefan Enßle, cand. med.
(TUM Graduate School Promotionsprogramm Translationale Medizin, since 2019)
Yunus Barth, cand. med.
(TUM Graduate School Promotionsprogramm Translationale Medizin, since 2020)
Tina Marie Eismann, cand. med.
(TUM Graduate School Promotionsprogramm Translationale Medizin, since 2020)
Sophia Fabiana Göldel, cand. med.
(TUM Graduate School Promotionsprogramm Translationale Medizin, since 2020)
Research Assistants
Tatjana Nedelko
(Ph.D, since 2018)
Lena Klostermeier
(Biology student, since 2018)
Former Lab Members
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Application
We are currently not recruiting - no open positions are available.
Third party funding
Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA)
Deutsche José Carreras Leukämie-Stiftung
Promotionsprogramm "Translationale Medizin", TU München
We are part of
EHA-ASH Translational Research Training in Hematology (TRTH) Program
