News

We have set up a new robotic platform (AssayMap BRAVO) on which we will provide more and more automated sample preparation. The protocol for phosphopeptide enrichment is already established.

In February 2023, we have replaced the first generation QExactive Orbitrap system by a brand new timsTOF HT, and in October 2024 the QExactive HF was replaced with an Orbitrap Astral. Furthermore, the timsTOF Pro put in service in 2020, was upgraded to a timsTOF HT in February 2025.

We started a new project in collaboration with NCCR RNA & Disease. The major histocompatibility complex-I (MHC–I) plays a central role in immune regulation by presenting short peptides of cell-internally degraded proteins on the cell surface to immune-competent CD8+ T-cells. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is an evolutionary conserved mechanism destroying aberrant mRNA. Somatic mutations accumulate in cancer cells where NMD removes non-functional mRNA. Thus, a large fraction of potential neo-antigens is not produced and presented on the surface of cancer cells. We will investigate how NMD could potentially be manipulted to revert this situation and trigger an immune response against cancer cells.

(Last updated on February 24, 2025)