Head: Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Judith Dierlamm

Main Research:

Most cancers are caused by specific alterations of the inherited genetic material. The knowledge about such genetic changes is pivotal in monitoring of the disease course, diagnosis, prognosis and the therapy of the disease. Additionally the detection and detailed analysis of recurrent numerical and/or structural chromosomal aberrations allows the identification of genes associated with a specific malignancy and leads to the enlightening of the pathogenesis behind those diseases.

We are interested in the characterisation of genetic changes involving the hematopoietic and lymphocytic systems. Our scientific focus area is the analysis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma especially marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Hereby use of conventional cytogenetic methods allows us an undirected gross overview about the whole structural and numerical aberrations of a tumour genome. Subsequent analysis of recurrent chromosomal aberrations allow us to focus our research to a specific region of the chromosome, containing tumour-suppressor genes or proto-oncogenes, which are known to be important players in the development and progression of specific malignancies. After such an initial hint those regions were investigated using fluorescent labelled probes and molecular genetic methods in detail for an exact determination of the specific aberration in nucleotide level.