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| Dr. Dr. Sandrine Sander, photograph: David Ausserhofer, Copyright: MDC |
The cancer researcher Dr. Dr. Sandrine Sander of the Max DelbrückCenter for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch has been honored with the Curt Meyer Memorial Prize for her research into the development of Burkitt’s lymphoma, a malignant, fast-growing tumor that most commonly occurs in childhood. The prize, which is endowed with 10,000 euros, was presented to the 36-year-old scientist at a symposium in Berlin on November 19, 2013.
Burkitt’s lymphoma, also called Burkitt lymphoma or BL, originates from a subtype of white blood cells, the B lymphocytes of the immune system. This tumor, which is most often seen in equatorial Africa and South America, is characterized by an aggressive clinical course including the spread of lymphoma cells to the central nervous system in many patients.
Together with the immunologist and cancer researcher Professor Klaus Rajewsky of the MDC, Dr. Sander identified the enzyme PI3K as a key element that reprograms B cells into malignant lymphoma cells. Already several years ago Professor Rajewsky and his team demonstrated the importance of PI3K for the survival of mature B cells. The enzyme activates a signaling pathway that induces cell growth and counteracts cell death (apoptosis), which serves as a safeguard mechanism to eliminate damaged cells.
For a long time deregulation of the c-MYC oncogene has been implicated in Burkitt’s lymphoma development. The oncogene induces cell division; thus, its expression is tightly controlled in normal cells. Dr. Sander and Professor Rajewsky have now discovered that PI3K enables c-MYC to transform lymphocytes into cancer cells. These lymphoma cells divide continuously and escape the programmed cell death induced by MYC deregulation. The MDC researchers developed a mouse model closely resembling human Burkitt’s lymphoma and which will be used to develop new therapeutic strategies for this disease. The report of these findings was published in the journal Cancer Cell* in August 2012.
Since 1988, the Curt Meyer Memorial Prize has been awarded annually by the Berlin Cancer Society to young scientists from Berlin for outstanding publications in the field of clinical, experimental and translational oncology. Prize recipients from the MDC and Charité in previous years were the biologist Hua Jing** and the physician scientist Dr. Julia Kase (2012), the cancer researchers and clinicians Dr. Martin Janz and Dr. Stephan Mathas (2008), Professor Clemens A. Schmitt (2006) and Professor Peter Daniel (2001).
The prize is named after Dr. Curt Meyer, a physician and health official of the Berlin Senate who was born in Herleshausen/Thuringia in 1891. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz where he as prisoner took care of fellow detainees suffering from epidemic disease. He survived the concentration camp and after the war dedicated himself to public health, including the care of cancer patients. He was the founder of several medical societies, including the Berlin State Committee against Cancer out of which the Berlin Cancer Society has evolved. Curt Meyer died in 1984 at the age of 93.
*Cancer Cell, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2012.06.012
** Last name
Contact:
Barbara Bachtler
Press Department
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
in the Helmholtz Association
Robert-Rössle-Strasse 10; 13125 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 96; Fax: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 33
e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
Further information:
Foundation under Public Law
Directors:
Professor Walter Rosenthal, N.N.
Member of the
Hermann von Helmholtz Association of
National Research Centres
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