New research group investigating liver cancer receives funding

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the multi-location research group “How Death and Danger Signals Dynamically Control Stage Transitions in Chronic Hepatic Disease – dangerhep” with EUR 5.8 million for a period of four years (2026–2029). The joint research group unites researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), Düsseldorf University Hospital (UKD), and the universities of Stuttgart, Tübingen, and Dortmund, to investigate how chronic liver damage leads to liver cancer. One of the aims is to develop new prevention strategies.

In most cases, liver cancer is preceded by chronic liver damage. The causes are diverse. Chronic liver disease can be triggered, for example, by a viral infection such as hepatitis, fatty liver disease, or long-term alcohol consumption. So far, it has not been possible to reliably predict the individual cancer risk in patients with chronic liver disease. A preventive drug treatment aimed at stopping the development of cancer is also not yet available.

This is where the multi-location research group dangerhep, led by Prof. Tom Lüdde (Director of the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Infectious Diseases at UKD), comes in. The goal of the collaborative project is to systematically unravel the so far poorly understood relationships between liver cell death, the resulting chronic inflammation, and the subsequent development of liver cancer. At the center of this is the use of two-photon microscopy, a high-resolution imaging method that, for the first time, makes it possible to visualize liver cell damage and death directly in living tissue.

A particular focus of the investigation is to clarify which inflammation-promoting signaling molecules are released during cell death, which immune cells are thereby activated, and how these processes promote cancer development in the long term. A better understanding of these mechanisms is expected to help in the future to monitor high-risk patients more effectively and to develop new preventive therapy strategies.

"As part of the research group, our team is investigating how signals released from body fat affect liver health in obesity. In particular, we want to understand why some people with obesity develop severe liver disease while others remain relatively healthy," says Jun.-Prof. Nieves Peltzer, head of the Genome Editing Department at the Institute of Biomedical Genetics. Her interdisciplinary team is investigating how fat cells communicate with the liver through inflammatory signals and regulated cell death processes. The goal is to identify biological “warning signals” as well as natural protective mechanisms that shape disease progression.

Researchers at the Institute of Biomedical Genetics collaborate with key research facilities at the University of Stuttgart, including the 3R-BioMedicUS network and the Stuttgart Research Center for Systems Biology (SRCSB). The Stuttgart team is closely integrated into the multi-location research network of the new DFG group dangerhep.