Four TUM research teams receive m4 Awards

From fundamental research to new medications

In their project FUSIX Biotech, Adjunct Teaching Professor Jennifer Altomonte and Teresa Krabbe are researching the treatment of tumors using oncolytic viruses which selectively infect the tumor tissue, causing the cancer cells to die. Past attempts have always encountered challenges: Intravenous application is inefficient in delivering sufficient quantities of virus to the tumor, while the tissue of some tumors is so dense that treatments cannot penetrate them. Working at the TUM's university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar, the scientists have now engineered a hybrid of two recombinant viruses to develop a superior oncolytic virus which overcomes the known obstacles and has been shown to be effective against primary liver cancer. The new virus is not pathogenic in humans, and humans do not have any pre-existing immunity against it. The award winners now plan to complete their pre-clinical data package and to scale it for clinical-grade production. They hope to reach this milestone within the next two years and to found a company with a marketable product.

Antibody-based immunotherapies promise great potential when it comes to treating tumor diseases. They attach themselves to special structures on the surface of the tumor and can for example attract the body's own immune cells to fight the tumor. Treatment can sometimes lead to an overstimulation of the immune system, resulting in severe side effects. One reason for this is that the target structures are not only present in the tumor, but also in healthy tissue. Now, the LOGIBODY team at the TUM Professorship for Biomolecular Nanotechnology and its mentor Prof. Hendrik Dietz, have developed an "on/off switch" for antibody immunotherapies. The nanoswitch recognizes tumor cells specifically and thus can ensure that immune cells are recruited to the tumor cells. This results in reduced activity in healthy tissue and thus to fewer side-effects. The molecular switch is made up of DNA which here no longer serves as a carrier of genetic information, but rather as a reliable building material for molecular machines on a nanometer scale. LOGIBODY exemplifies the innovation potential of molecular robotics.

Dr. Hannelore Meyer, research group leader at the TUM Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene, and her FRABIOTICS team in collaboration with the Helmholtz Zentrum München have identified a fragment (very small ‚small molecule'), which blocks bacterial resistance to the most widely used antibiotics. The infections caused by these bacteria include for example certain life-threatening forms of pneumonia and blood poisoning. These fragments have a dual mode of action. Firstly, they shut down the resistance against these antibiotics and thereby protect their efficacy. In addition, they have an antibiotic effect themselves, i.e. they can also fight bacteria without the additional administration of antibiotics. Thanks to this dual mode of action resistance development in the pathogenic bacteria against this treatment is expected to be delayed. The researchers plan to use the m4 Award funding to find the mechanism behind the antibiotic effect of the molecules and optimize it for medicinal application.

In the aBACTER project, Prof. Stephan Sieber, who holds the Chair of Organic Chemistry II at TUM, Dr. Franziska Mandl, Dr. Christian Fetzer, and Dr. Mathias Hackl are developing a novel anti-infective against multiresistant bacteria which often cannot even be treated with reserve antibiotics such as vancomycin; according to estimates, such germs are responsible for several thousands of deaths in Germany each year. The new antibiotic intervenes in several cell processes in the bacteria which are not attacked by currently approved antibiotics. This means that multiresistant bacteria have no defense against this new antibiotic and that it is significantly less probable that bacteria will become resistant against it: They would have to develop simultaneous resistances to the various cell processes addressed. In the long term, the new antibiotic could be used to fight a large number of diseases. The researchers plan to use it first against endocarditis, a dangerous infection of the endocardium for which there are already only a limited number of therapeutic options. The researchers plan to use the funding from m4-Award for decisive preclinical tests in order to make a large step towards entering the first clinical phase.