Florian Wimmers receives ERC Starting Grant

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us acutely aware of how vulnerable our healthcare system can be. Those who already have a weakened immune system are particularly at risk. This includes cancer patients. Cancer drugs in particular usually have an immunosuppressive effect and therefore weaken the body's own immune system, putting people at particular risk from viral or bacterial infections.

This makes the news that Florian Wimmers, Emmy Noether research group leader, has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) all the more gratifying. The funding of 1.5 million euros is for five years. In his "OrAIOn" project, Florian and his team want to systematically investigate the influence of cancer drugs on the effectiveness of vaccines and contribute to the faster development of personalized vaccination recommendations by identifying interactions between cancer drugs and vaccines.

Novel tonsil organoids and advanced AI algorithms are used to create a virtual lymph node. In the video, Florian explains how these two unique selling points are helping to build a comprehensive database of proven drug-vaccine interactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTN_jOLygeU