Therapy Design

The usage of approved drugs for new applications, drug repurposing, based on the ‘omics-technologies is one of the strategies of the division Therapy Design within the ZPM. We use this approach in a strongly patient individualized way to achieve high specificity of tumor patient treatment. Therefore we analyze primary tumor samples of the patient with various molecular diagnostic procedures (tumor genome, epigenome, transcriptome) (Fig.1). With help of bioinformatical analysis, provided by the QBiC, we can identify candidate genes as tumor driver genes. From these examinations we compile lists of potential targets for pharmacological intervention and discuss them in interdisciplinary boards (oncologists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists, etc.). Out of these discussions personalised therapeutic concepts develop fitting one individual patient. Using already approved drugs these concepts can be realized immediately.