Liver Systems Medicine Cancer

Liver Systems Medicine Cancer - LiSyM-Cancer - is a multidisciplinary research network funded within the Federal Ministry of Education and Research program "Funding of a Systems Medicine Research Network for the Early Detection and Prevention of Liver Cancer" within the Framework of the National Decade Against Cancer. The funding period is July 2021 until July 2024.

The LiSyM-Cancer research network builds on the achievements of the previous network LiSyM (funding period 2016 to 2020) and is extending the research focus to liver cancer.

In the LiSyM-Cancer network, molecular and cell biologists, clinical researchers and experts in mathematical modeling are jointly conducting research to investigate the development of liver cancer from pre-existing conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver or liver cirrhosis. The aim of the joint project is to identify relevant biomarkers to diagnose and prevent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at early stages.

The group at our department is involved in the SMART-NAFLD – Subproject. Based on the experiences with LiSyM network an integrative analysis of tissue samples, MRI images is performed in collaboration with the surgical partners. This is based on harmonized suitable cross-sectional imaging and definded criteria for the selection of patients potentially undergoing surgery yielding liver tissue suitable for the prospective isolation of primary hepatocytes in the case of liver resections.

The overall aim ist he identification of tumor-promoting changes in metabolism and signal transduction based on a systems medicine (modelling) approach.