Get to know: Prof. Ulrich Lauer

Ulrich Lauer and his group have one focus on Nuclear-protein-in-testis (NUT) carcinomas, a rare soft tissue tumor. Furthermore, they are looking at oncolytic viruses and combining these with checkpoint-inhibitors. For this, they are conducting the first phase I study for efficacy and safety in humans for achieving a bench to bedside approach. One major point in Ulrich Lauer’s research is the testing and characterization of tumor resistance and connected to this, predictive diagnostics. Importantly, since oncolytic viruses are biological agents, they might require more realistic in vitro tumor models than common monolayer tumor cell cultures to provide meaningful predictive preclinical evaluation results [1]. In 2015, American and European authorities clinically approved of a first virotherapeutic drug: „Imlygic®“, a modified herpes simplex virus, which can be injected directly into melanoma tumors [2]. Together with the group of Manfred Kneilling the group of Ulrich Lauer currently is working on a preclinical study in immunotherapy with neuroendocrine tumors, where they are applying a combination therapy of an oncolytic herpes simplex virus with T-cell and immune checkpoint inhibition therapy. We will stay posted and hope that Ulrich Lauer and his group continue to enjoy their research within iFIT!

[1] Kloker LD, Yurttas C, Lauer UM. Three-dimensional tumor cell cultures employed in virotherapy research. Oncolytic Virother. 2018;7:79-93. https://doi.org/10.2147/OV.S165479  

[2] Rauch J The Achilles’ Heel of Cancer. Attempto! May 2019