Alexandra Baumann

Optimization of Lung Cancer Therapy with Ionizing Radiation (OLCIR)

Ionizing radiation causes DNA double-strand breaks and can therefore be used as cancer treatment. However, some tumors are less responsive to radiation treatment because of their underlying molecular profile. Within our project, we want to understand how lung cancer cells with different phenotypes respond to radiation on a molecular level and which DNA damage response pathways are activated. Our project partners in Frankfurt and Essen conduct wet lab experiments of lung cancer cells exposed to various doses of radiation. I analyze the resulting multi-omics data (mainly RNA-seq and DNA-sequencing data) and integrate data from public databases. I test different tools to identify differentially expressed genes, allele-specific expression, and aberrant transcripts on RNA level. Then, I utilize different enrichment analysis tools for the differentially expressed transcripts to identify enriched signaling pathways. I will also compare different machine learning architectures to prioritize biologically relevant transcripts. From there on, I build molecular interaction networks using systems biology standards. With our work, we will unravel the molecular genetic mechanisms of lung cancer cells and analyze the network of DSB recognition proteins and signal transduction cascades. This will help us to predict the response of tumors to specific therapies.