Mission & Values
Our Mission
Scientific Mission
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, highlighting the urgent need for new therapeutic strategies. While advances in cancer genomics and immunotherapy have transformed patient care, many tumor-driving mechanisms remain difficult to target. CRC/TRR 387 addresses this challenge by focusing on the ubiquitin system, a fundamental cellular regulatory network that controls the function, activity, and degradation of most proteins in human cells.
The central mission of CRC/TRR 387 is to uncover how dysregulated ubiquitin-dependent processes drive cancer development, progression, and therapy resistance, and to translate these insights into innovative treatment strategies. We investigate mechanistically validated vulnerabilities within the ubiquitin system across four major cancer entities: acute myeloid leukemia (AML), B-cell malignancies, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and colorectal cancer (CRC).
By combining expertise from molecular biology, cancer research, structural biology, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, pathology, and clinical oncology, we aim to identify novel therapeutic targets and develop next-generation approaches to cancer treatment. Particular emphasis is placed on targeted protein degradation technologies, including PROTACs and molecular glues, which enable the elimination of disease-driving proteins that have historically been considered “undruggable.”
Through an integrated research framework that links fundamental discovery to translational drug development, CRC/TRR 387 seeks to establish ubiquitylation as a central frontier in oncology and to create the foundation for a new generation of precision cancer therapies.
Research Structure
CRC/TRR 387 is organized into two interconnected research areas that are supported by three central platform projects.
Research Area A: Mechanism-based Discovery
Research Area A focuses on the identification and mechanistic characterization of ubiquitin-system vulnerabilities in cancer. The projects investigate how aberrant ubiquitin-dependent processes contribute to tumor initiation, progression, and therapeutic resistance across the CRC’s four focus entities. Through functional, molecular, and systems-level analyses, this research area aims to uncover novel therapeutic targets and establish a comprehensive understanding of cancer-relevant ubiquitin biology.
Research Area B: Compound-based Application
Research Area B translates biological discoveries into therapeutic strategies. Building on targets validated in Research Area A, projects develop small-molecule compounds and targeted protein degradation approaches, including PROTACs and molecular glues, to selectively eliminate cancer-driving proteins. The goal is to advance innovative therapeutic concepts toward preclinical application.
Core Platforms
Three dedicated platform projects support all research activities across the CRC/TRR:
Z01 – Target and Compound Profiling: Provides advanced technologies for target validation, cellular phenotyping, target engagement analyses, and proteome-wide assessment of drug selectivity.
Z02 – Drug/Probe Discovery Platform: Serves as the drug discovery engine of the consortium, offering high-throughput screening, hit-to-lead optimization, medicinal chemistry expertise, and PROTAC development.
Z03 – Functional Human and Mouse Pathology: Enables validation of discoveries in patient-derived material using state-of-the-art pathology approaches, including spatial profiling technologies such as CODEX and ubiquitin-specific functional assays.
Together, these platforms create a seamless pipeline from biological discovery to therapeutic development and clinical translation.
Our Values
Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Family Support
We are committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive research environment that promotes gender equality, diversity, and the compatibility of research careers with family responsibilities. Building on the established equality and family support structures at Technical University of Munich, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, CRC/TRR 387 implements additional measures tailored to the needs of its researchers.
Our initiatives include mentoring, career coaching, networking opportunities, and professional development programs for female researchers at all career stages. We actively promote gender-balanced recruitment, support female leadership in science, and provide training on unconscious bias and diversity awareness.
To support researchers with families, CRC/TRR 387 offers dedicated family support funding, childcare support during consortium events, travel allowances for researchers with young children, funding for home-office equipment to enable flexible working arrangements, support for researchers during maternity and paternity leave through additional laboratory personnel, flexible participation options in meetings, and other measures that facilitate the reconciliation of family responsibilities and scientific careers.
Coordinator for Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Family Support
Supporting Early-Career Researchers
The development of early-career researchers is a key priority of the CRC/TRR UbiQancer. Through mentoring, training, networking opportunities, and career development initiatives, we foster the next generation of scientists. A central pillar of this effort is our Integrated Research Training Group (IRTG), which provides structured scientific and methodological training, interdisciplinary exchange, and networking opportunities for doctoral researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and other early-career scientists across all participating sites.
Research
Scientific Coordinator
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