The German Research Foundation (DFG) is establishing Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1752 DYNAMO, in which researchers are investigating how malignant melanoma tumors respond to and adapt to therapeutic interventions during the first few weeks of treatment. It is often during this early phase that signs emerge indicating whether treatments will lose their efficacy over the long term. The underlying cause is the development of therapeutic resistance in individual cancer cells. This is precisely where the CRC's research teams are focusing their efforts.

"The approval of the DYNAMO CRC strengthens the research profile of the University of Duisburg-Essen—and, in particular, our strategic focus on the biomedical sciences. At the same time, the CRC bridges the gap between technology-driven basic research and clinical practice—a crucial prerequisite for translating new scientific insights into improved therapies more rapidly," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Astrid Westendorf, Vice-Rector for Research and Early Career Researchers at UDE.

"We aim to initiate a paradigm shift: moving away from merely reacting and toward earlier intervention," says CRC chair and dermato-oncologist Prof. Dr. Alexander Roesch. Our new CRC strengthens cancer research in North Rhine-Westphalia and contributes significantly to translating scientific findings into clinical practice more rapidly.

The CRC project groups analyze what occurs within a tumor immediately following the initiation of therapy. Physicians, cancer researchers, and immunologists collaborate to examine patient samples. They identify even the most minute changes at the molecular level and integrate the resulting data. This process is complemented by computer-aided analyses based on complex computational models. "This allows us to construct a comprehensive picture at the earliest possible stage—something that has been lacking until now," emphasizes skin cancer expert Professor Roesch.

One key research objective is to eventually be able to predict the dynamic adaptive behavior of melanoma cells and to specifically target and influence it. The aim is for therapies to remain effective for longer periods and to prevent relapses. Ideally, these findings will also open up new avenues for improving the treatment of other types of cancer.

This year’s Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience retreat was held at the Ruhr University Bochum. It started with an early career researcher (ECR) symposium, where members of the core and members of the Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) 1280 and 1315 introduced themselves to the other researchers. This "ice breaker" was followed by the interactive workshop session on "Sleeping beauty, the prince doesn’t come! About self-marketing and networking" by Philipp Gramlich, where all participants were taught how to expand and keep a network, improve self-presentation appearance. Moreover, they learned about body language and the importance of a professional first impression and how to design a personal pitch for job interviews, trade and career fairs, conferences and meetings.

The afternoon session kicked off with the keynote lecture of Professor Simon Hanslmayr from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Centre for Neurotechnology, University of Glasgow, entitled "Revisiting Hebb and the Hippocampal Index in Humans: Toward a Neurotechnology of Memory". After this inspiring talk, all core members presented their PhD/MD projects in interactive discussions during a poster session. The scientific part of the retreat was closed by engaging in a group activity called the Frankenstein Proposals. With this method mash up, mixed groups of 4-5 persons (PhD, MD students and PIs) brought together their expertise and wildest ideas and designed a bold joint experiment in limited time. The sky was the limit for budget, there were no laws and no requirements for ethics approval. Funny monsters came to life and three BIOME students won the prize for the best proposal. The retreat ended with a “get together” and joint dinner in Bochum.

The two-day 2025 retreat of the BIOME cores on Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Infectious Diseases, and Tumour and Signalling was hosted in Essen last week. Invited keynote speakers were Dr. Chong Sun (DKFZ German Cancer Research Center) who spoke about identifying limiting factors in antitumor T cell responses, Prof. Andreas Baur (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen) who shared insights on the astonishing dimension of plasma extracellular vesicles, and Prof. Bruce Morgan (Universität des Saarlandes) who discussed the redox landscape, spanning from metabolite dynamics to cellular decision-making. A special after-dinner highlight on the first day was the meet-the-expert round with the guest speakers where they described their personal career paths and shared some words of advice with the young researchers for their professional futures based on their own experience. At the closing session of the event, best poster awards were presented to Hannah Breiter, Lea Otte, and Vaasudevan Sridhar, while the best doctoral talk prize was deservedly awarded to Georgia Antonopoulou. This year's retreat was excellently co-organised by Paula Busskamp Castro, Mohamed Elbeltagy, Michelle Elbert, and Vivienne Schneider.

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The Ischaemia, Reperfusion and Angiogenesis core's annual retreat keynote speaker this year was Prof. Dr. Matthias Gunzer from the University Hospital Essen, Institute for Experimental Immunology and Imaging, who presented a talk on "How unexpected findings can drive your research - if you let them." It was an excellent lecture, beginning with a general historical excursion into coincidences in science. Examples of such are the discovery of penicillin, radioactivity, cosmic background radiation, etc.. Prof. Gunzer then went on to give a fascinating account of how his research group discovered the role of neutrophil granulocytes in stroke. Here, too, it all began with a chance observation.

After a short break, the students gave short presentations on "disruptive, shocking, or life-changing" methods or findings. The presentations covered topics such as pacemakers, computed tomography, the advantages and disadvantages of AI in perinatal or neural medicine, and nanomaterials. All presentations were discussed in a lively and often controversial manner.

During a closing get-together session following these doctoral presentations, the retreat participants exchanged views on progress and challenges in their various scientific fields.