Functional genomics (Pilarsky lab)
Pancreatic cancer is the 4th common cancer related cause of death in the Western world. With an estimated 5 year survival rate of 8%, prognosis is dismal for most of the patients. The Pilarsky lab has focused on this cancer entity using molecular and translational medicine to identify new targets for drug intervention and new biomarkers for early detection and prognosis. We are concentrating on modern gene editing techniques based on CRISPR/Cas9 together with NGS to knock out families of genes delineating which genes are important for therapeutic resistance on pancreatic cancer and which are involved in the formation of metastasis. Using murine and human model systems we are also cultivating tumor organoids for personal medicine approaches. Moreover, we are part of the CCC Erlangen-EMN where we are collecting samples from patients for blood based analysis. We are an international team of doctors and scientists in an English speaking laboratory and offer medical and science students a unique opportunity to work in a modern lab environment. Please contact us if you are interested.