Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) comprises 95% of all cancers of the pancreas and represents the deadliest type of cancer with almost equal numbers of deaths and diagnosis every year. Unfortunately, to date, there are still no treatment options that offer an efficient and curable response for patients. Additionally, early detection markers are yet available, and the majority of the patients present with already metastatic lesions at time of diagnosis. Our lab focuses on understanding how PDAC patient heterogeneity is regulated and how the complex interactions with and within the tumor microenvironment impact disease outcome and treatment response. To address this questions, we maintains active collaborations with clinical partners and makes use of primary human in vitro and in vivo models, state-of-the-art omics technologies, and bioinformatic analyses of public and self-generated patient data. Our group aims at understanding pancreatic cancer tumors as a whole with the goal of defining new therapies that translate into a measurable benefit in PDAC patients.
