2022

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month – a month dedicated to remind us of the dire need to find more and better cures for this devastating disease.

St. Anna Childhood Cancer Researcher Michael Dworzak explains which question drives him, what matters in research/life and how to keep cool on hot summer days.

St. Anna Children’s Cancer Researcher Sabine Taschner-Mandl strives to improve the treatment of childhood nerve tumors. We asked what arouses her curiosity and how she spends her summer holidays.

This year’s 1000 ideas program of FWF promotes another two of St. Anna CCRI’s “completely new, daring or particularly original research ideas that lie outside the current scientific understanding”. Florian Halbritter’s new approach aims to integrate machine learning directly into the experimental design and execution of manufacturing specific cell types from stem cells – with the ultimate goal to reprogram even cancer cells. Artem Kalinichenko, who was also awarded a 1000 ideas grant, is targeting abnormal tumor metabolism by identifying cancer-derived metabolites, drugs and drug metabolites that trigger an immune reaction, which could later be exploited for immunotherapy.

Scientists off the record: St. Anna Children’s Cancer Researcher René Geyeregger reveals how he spends his summer vacation, what he is curious about and what drives him in research.

To find vulnerabilities of cancers that are driven by MYC, a protein known for its potential to induce tumor growth, is the goal of a new project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. Davide Seruggia from St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (St. Anna CCRI) and colleagues aim to deactivate this key cancer regulator by targeting components of SAGA, a protein complex tightly linked to MYC. Since pediatric leukemia and neuroblastoma, two of the most common childhood cancers are known to be driven by MYC, establishing new strategies to interrupt its activity in cancer cells is of utmost importance.

To kick off our new interview series, we asked St. Anna Children’s Cancer Researcher Eva König how she copes with midsummer temperatures, what shaped her life as a researcher, and which book should not be missing in her vacation luggage.

Sharing knowledge about childhood cancer with United Nations´ “Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Cities”.

Congratulations to Ana Kutschat on receiving one of the prestigious MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships!

St. Anna CCRI goes EHA 2022 (Vienna, 18.6.2022) We have been very excited to attend Europe’s largest conference on hematology here in Vienna: The European Hematology Association (EHA) Hybrid Congress took place from June 9-17 2022 and provided over 1,400 posters, 180 scientific sessions and more than 2,200 selected abstracts. On site, we asked our

Happy to welcome our Lithuanian colleagues from the TREL project (Vienna, 2.6.2022) We are happy and excited to welcome our Lithuanian colleagues in Vienna! Within the EU funded project “Twinning in Research and Education to improve survival in Childhood Solid Tumors in Lithuania” (TREL). They visited us for a workshop to strengthen their research management

St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute focuses on equality (Vienna, 2.6.2021) Together with the consulting team from “100 percent – equality pays off”, St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute has created a Gender Equality Plan. Diversity and inclusion have been anchored in the corporate culture of St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute for a long

This was the Long Night of Research 2022! Our photos of the Long Night of Research 2022 are finally online! All stations were busy throughout the whole evening, with a total of 450 visitors at St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute. It was a great event! To open our doors to a wide audience again

DOC fellowship recipient Elise Sylvander develops safety system for CAR T-cells (Vienna, 24.5.2022) Congratulations to Elise Sylvander on receiving a DOC fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The aim of her fellowship is to (further) develop a molecular on-switch allowing to activate therapeutic CAR T-cells, once they have been administered to the patient. “CAR

Sabine Taschner-Mandl earns FWF-Stand-Alone-Grant (Vienna, 10.4.2022) Congratulations to Sabine Taschner-Mandl, PhD, and her team on being awarded a Stand-Alone Grant by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. “We aim at mapping tumor metastases by multi-modal imaging to better understand the heterogeneity of childhood nerve tumors and their microenvironment. Mapping tumor cell dissemination can help to refine