Dr. Lukas Mager receives ERC Starting Grant

We congratulate Dr. Lukas Mager. As head of a Max-Eder Junior Research Group within Institute of Internal Medicine I of University Hospital Tübingen and at the Medical Faculty Tübingen as well as member of our iFIT Cluster of Excellence, he receives a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). His project entitled "Systematic Triangulation of Pathobiont-Host Interactions" deals with research on inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer. For this, he will receive funding of approximately 2 million euros over a period of five years. The research project will start in March 2024.

Chronic intestinal diseases as well as cancer are often closely linked to genetic factors, but also to a lack of microbial diversity in the gut. The microbiome, i.e. the totality of all microorganisms in our body, plays a crucial role. Certain bacteria, so-called pathobionts, can promote the development of diseases or reduce the effectiveness of therapies. So far, little is known about such disease-relevant bacteria and their interaction with genetic risk factors of affected individuals.

This is where the research of Dr. Mager's group comes in. Their goal is to identify pathobionts and analyze their interaction with genetic risk factors. With the help of machine learning, the researchers then want to find correspondences between genetic risk and pathobionts that promote disease development. Ultimately, the knowledge gained may help to use bacteria in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer at a later stage.

Dr. Mager's research focuses on the interface between the microbiome and cancer. It is therefore not surprising that as a researcher he is part of two Tübingen Clusters of Excellence dealing with microbiome research (Controlling Microbes to Fight Infection - CMFI) on the one hand and cancer research (Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies -iFIT) on the other. In addition, his laboratory is located in the new M3 Research Center of the Medical Faculty, which synergistically combines three previously separate topics: malignoma, metabolome and microbiome research.