Haematoloy, Oncology and Tumorimmunology
Head of the group
Prof. Dr. Bernd Doerken
Scope
Studying the molecular mechanisms underlying B cell development and differentiation is one of the key approaches to understanding the pathways leading to disease. We are particularly interested in terminally differentiated B cells that give rise to hematologic malignancies like Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Hodgkin- and Reed-Sternberg cells are tumor cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). In most cases, they are derived from germinal center B cells. However, they do not express immunoglobulins and typical B cell-specific markers. We focus our work on the characterization of the molecular basis for the dedifferentiated B cell phenotype of Hodgkin lymphoma and aim to identify molecular defects that are responsible for tumor cell transformation and differentiation. We further evaluate molecular defects in lymphomas related to Hodgkin lymphoma like anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) or multiple myeloma. It is the ultimate aim of our work to identify targets for the development of new treatment strategies.