Chair of Experimental Pediatrics

Cancer development is a multistep process based on complex genetic and epigenetic changes. Our work focuses on understanding these processes through deep molecular profiling using single-cell and deep spatial profiling techniques.

We are dedicated to studying rare paediatric tumours. Although our main focus is on rhabdoid tumours and tumours involving aberrations in the SWI/SNF complex (an epigenetic remodeller), we have recently started to study other rare paediatric tumours as well.

A project in collaboration with the MET Study Center (Prof. Dr. Michaela Kuhlen, PD Dr. Antje Redlich)—using methylation-based classification and single-cell approaches, we are developing a molecular-based subgrouping of ACT and identifying biological differences among the subgroups.

By comparing the epigenetic landscape of rhabdoid tumors and epitheliod sarcoma, we seek to identify similarities and differences between rhabdoid tumors.
In collaboration with the laboratories of Prof. Grünewald (KiTZ Heidelberg) and the CWS registry (Prof. Sparber-Sauer), our ultimate goal is to identify novel drug targets.

In a collaborative project with the INFORM registry, we have conducted a paired analysis of primary and relapsed rhabdoid tumors and are thus tracking the molecular evolution of these tumors upon relapse (Project: Maria Daniela Hernández Ramírez).

As one of the co-leads of the German study group on rare embryonal/sarcomatous brain tumors, Pascal Johann is active both in the molecular study of these tumors and in establishing clinical guidelines for these difficult-to-treat tumor entities.

Using conventional and hyperfractionated radiation therapy, we are determining the radiosensitivity of numerous models of rhabdoid tumors, small cell carcinoma of the ovary (hypercalcemic type), and epithelioid sarcomas (Projects: Rebekka Prim, Svenja Steinhauser).

johann-lab@uk-augsburg.de