Lunch and Learn with Jan Böttcher

👍Our iFIT Lunch and Learn session on Wednesday 10 of June once again highlighted the value of this format for sharing the latest scientific discoveries, experimental results and insights into future medical applications.
💡 Excited to share a few key takeaways from our session with Jan Böttcher (Department of Experimental Immunology, Institute of Immunology & M3 Research Center, University of Tübingen). Following an introduction by Florian Wimmers, PhD, also an iFIT member, Jan presented cutting-edge research largely driven by Anna Hirschberger together with his team and collaborators.

👉 Topic: Immunevasion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC): lessons from cancer cell states
😔 PDAC remains one of the most lethal cancers, with a 5-year survival rate of around 13% and very limited treatment options. Immunotherapy often fails in PDAC because of its profoundly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.

🔬 Jan walked us through how his group combines:
- Tumor mouse models of pancreatic cancer and building a library of tumor cell lines
- KO mice to test signalling pathways
- snRNA sequencing in PDAC patients
to answer a central question:
 👉 Which cellular and molecular features determine the immunosuppressive capacity of PDAC?

Some key insights:
• The immune-suppressive capacity of tumor cells appears to be largely independent of their underlying genetic alterations.
• Highly immunosuppressive tumor cells acquire distinct inflammatory signaling programs that actively shape the local immune environment.
• Tumor-derived signaling molecules emerge as key regulators of immunosuppressive activity within tumor tissue.
• In human patients with PDAC these cellular programs correlate with immunosuppression and poor patient survival.
☝Most importantly, this mechanism may represent promising targets for future immunotherapeutic approaches.

🙏 A huge thank you to Jan Böttcher, his team and collaborators for sharing these impressive insights into how tumor–immune interactions shape the course of pancreatic cancer and for highlighting potential targets for future therapeutic interventions.

💬 Looking forward to our next Lunch and Learn session with Prof. Miriam Cortese-Krott on Wednesday, July 22 2026

📸 Jonas Ritz