Newsroom
Here you will find MSSO's latest news and stories, interesting events as well as recent publications generated by our fellows.
12th Immunotherapy of Cancer Conference (ITOC)
March 12th -14th 2026, Munich
Two of our fellows - Charlotte Orschel and Lisa Dietz - took part in the 12th ITOC meeting in Munich.
Charlotte Orschel has given a talk on “ERBB2 signaling drives immune cell evasion and resistance against immunotherapy in small cell lung cancer”.
ITOC is a European meeting providing a global platform for translational research in the field of immuno-oncology as well as a forum for discussion of early clinical translation and to address its unique challenges.
José Carreras Leukemia Foundation supports research project of MSSO fellow Till Braun
Till Braun is leading the project “New approaches to the treatment of T-prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL)”, which is funded by the José Carreras Leukemia Foundation with €215,600 over a period of three years.
T-PLL is a rare and highly aggressive form of blood cancer that responds poorly to conventional therapies. Despite initial treatment with the frequently used drug alemtuzumab, relapse typically occurs within two years. At present, allogeneic stem cell transplantation offers the best chance for long-term survival.
The aim of the project is to gain a mechanistic understanding of CTLA4 function and its interaction with other disease-driving factors using cellular and animal models. Based on these insights, the project will evaluate a CTLA4 fusion protein designed to selectively modulate the immune system, with the goal of enabling novel therapeutic strategies for T-PLL.
News
ARVO Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting 2026
May 3rd - 7th 2026, Denver, Colorado
The results of Letícia Ussem’s MSSO research project were presented at this year’s ARVO meeting in Denver (Colorado), where the poster received a "Hot Topic" designation during the conference.
12th DSO-Retreat at the O.A.S.E in Düsseldorf
May 7th 2026, Düsseldorf, Germany
The Düsseldorf School of Oncology (DSO) organized the 12th DSO Retreat, which took place on May 7th, 2026 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Guest speaker was Prof. Anke Reinacher-Schick (Director of the Department of Hematology and Oncology with Palliative Care, University Medical Center of Ruhr University Bochum).
Furthermore, doctoral students of the DSO network program launched in 2023 as well as DSO fellows presented their current state of research.
MSSO fellows and alumni also presented their research projects.
The annual DSO retreat 2026 offered the MSSO fellows a great opportunity to present and discuss their research progress at a symposium and for networking.
Upcoming Events
MSSO Retreat 2026
MSNZ symposium 2027 in Hamburg
April 22nd & 23rd 2027, Hamburg
The Mildred-Scheel-Nachwuchszentrum Hamburg is organizing the next MSNZ network meeting, which will take place in Hamburg.
Please save the date for this two-day event:
Thursday, 22 April AND
Friday, 23 April 2027
Paper in Nature Protocols by Matthias Schneider and the Brain Tumor Translational Research Group out now
July 28th 2026, Bonn
Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer that remains incurable despite multimodal treatment. A major challenge in developing more effective therapies is the extensive infiltration of glioblastoma cells into the surrounding brain, where tumor cells can disperse far beyond the macroscopically visible tumor.
The Brain Tumor Translational Research Group of Matthias Schneider has now published Core2Edge, a fully human ex vivo platform designed to study glioblastoma across its entire infiltration spectrum - from the tumor core to remote infiltration zones and ultimately single-cell dispersion. A particular strength of the model is its ability to reproduce the extensive infiltrative behavior of glioblastoma while preserving the intratumoral heterogeneity of the original patient tumor.
To establish the model, the researchers implant fluorescently labeled human glioblastoma organoids (GBOs) into organotypic human brain slices, thereby combining patient-derived tumor tissue with a human brain microenvironment. Tissue expansion combined with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy enables high-resolution three-dimensional imaging of the entire GBO-brain slice model and visualization of tumor infiltration and network architecture. Spatial transcriptomic profiling further allows the researchers to investigate how tumor cell states and their molecular programs change across different spatial regions of the model.
Core2Edge provides a platform to study glioblastoma invasion, tumor cell networks, and interactions between tumor cells and the surrounding tumor microenvironment from the tumor core to the invasive edge. It also enables the investigation of distinct glioblastoma cell states and their spatial organization during infiltration.
By more faithfully reproducing human glioblastoma infiltration and heterogeneity, the Core2Edge platform provides a basis for investigating new therapeutic strategies aimed at targeting invasive tumor cells and preventing or delaying glioblastoma recurrence. At the same time, the fully human model offers a platform for drug testing while helping to reduce the reliance on animal models.
Publications
Paper in Immunity by Felix Nebeling
April 14th 2026, Bonn
Paper on “Microglia-glioblastoma crosstalk mediates glioblastoma invasion at the far infiltration zone” by MSSO fellow Felix Nebeling has now been published.
Paper in Oncoimmunology by Stefanie Höppner is out now
April 8th 2026, Cologne
Paper on overcoming delayed immune checkpoint blockade by combining anti-PD-L1 treatment with a telomere dysfunction-inducing compound (6-thio-2ʹ-deoxyguanosine) in high-risk neuroblastoma by MSSO fellow Stefanie Höppner has now been published.
Johannes Brägelmann also contributed to this work.
The article is available through the following link: “Telomere damage enhances immunogenicity of neuroblastoma and accelerates response to anti-PD-L1 treatment”