Intern
Krebsforschung

Nierentumore im Kindesalter

Molecular screening of pediatric kidney tumors

Identification of driver mutations in childhood renal tumors (in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK)

Our goal is the identification of driver mutations and actionable or predictive biomarkers for pediatric renal tumors in the German pediatric renal tumor biobank, which is linked to the SIOP Renal Tumor Study Group (SIOP-RTSG). Our screening cohorts include mostly Wilms tumors, but also less frequent entities like clear cell sarcoma of the kidney (CCSK), or congenital mesoblastic nephroma (CMN). Analyses include whole genome, exome, transcriptome or methylome studies. Diagnostic aberrations are turned into routine assays for general testing of clinical samples. We closely interact with the clinical study center and reference pathology for integrated data analysis.

Selected Publications

Jimenez Martin O, Schlosser A, Furtwangler R, Wegert J, Gessler M. MYCN and MAX alterations in Wilms tumor and identification of novel N-MYC interaction partners as biomarker candidates. Cancer Cell Int 2021; 21:555.

Wegert J, Vokuhl C, Collord G, Del Castillo Velasco-Herrera M, Farndon SJ, Guzzo C, Jorgensen M, Anderson J, Slater O, Duncan C, Bausenwein S, Streitenberger H, Ziegler B, Furtwangler R, Graf N, Stratton MR, Campbell PJ, Jones DT, Koelsche C, Pfister SM, Mifsud W, Sebire N, Sparber-Sauer M, Koscielniak E, Rosenwald A, Gessler M, Behjati S. Recurrent intragenic rearrangements of EGFR and BRAF in soft tissue tumors of infants, Nat Commun. 2018; 9:2378.

Wegert J, Vokuhl C, Ziegler B, Ernestus K, Leuschner I, Furtwangler R, Graf N, Gessler M. TP53 alterations in Wilms tumour represent progression events with strong intratumour heterogeneity that are closely linked but not limited to anaplasia. J Pathol Clin Res. 2017; 3:234-248.

Vujanic GM, Gessler M, Ooms A, Collini P, Coulomb-l'Hermine A, D'Hooghe E, de Krijger RR, Perotti D, Pritchard-Jones K, Vokuhl C, van den Heuvel-Eibrink MM, Graf N, SIOP-RTSG. The UMBRELLA SIOP-RTSG 2016 Wilms tumour pathology and molecular biology protocol. Nat Rev Urol. 2018; 15:693-701.

Wegert J, Ishaque N, Vardapour R, Georg C, Gu Z, Bieg M, Ziegler B, Bausenwein S, Nourkami N, Ludwig N, Keller A, Grimm C, Kneitz S, Williams RD, Chagtai T, Pritchard-Jones K, van Sluis P, Volckmann R, Koster J, Versteeg R, Acha T, O'Sullivan MJ, Bode PK, Niggli F, Tytgat GA, van Tinteren H, van den Heuvel-Eibrink MM, Meese E, Vokuhl C, Leuschner I, Graf N, Eils R, Pfister SM, Kool M, Gessler M. Mutations in the SIX1/2 pathway and the DROSHA/DGCR8 miRNA microprocessor complex underlie high-risk blastemal type Wilms tumors. Cancer cell. 2015; 27:298-311.