Project C1
Predicting and controlling resistance evolution against targeted/ferroptotic combination therapies
| 2022 – 2025 | How cell death shapes tumor evolution during carcinogenesis |
| 2018 – 2021 | Evolutionary models for spatially structured tumors |
Targeted cancer drugs block specific molecules that tumour cells need to grow and survive. Although these drugs can work very well at first, their effects often fade because resistant cancer cells – usually already present before treatment – begin to dominate. One promising strategy is combination therapy that attacks cancer through two independent vulnerabilities, including drugs that trigger a form of cell death called ferroptosis. In this project, we study how resistance to such combined treatments evolves in non-small cell lung cancer cells. By measuring how resistant cells grow and mutate and using this information to build mathematical models, we aim to design treatment strategies that minimize the emergence of fully drug-resistant cancer cells and extend the effectiveness of targeted therapies.
Publications
A feedback loop between cell proliferation and ROS regulates ferroptosis sensitivity
Seidel E, Itak EY, Müller F, Yapici FI, Brägelmann J, Berg J & von Karstedt S, Front. Cell Dev. Biol., 14:1756238, 25. Mar 2026, 10.3389/fcell.2026.1756238
Branch length statistics in phylogenetic trees under constant-rate birth-death dynamics
Dieselhorst, T., & Berg, J, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 621, 08. Jan 2026, 10.1016/j.jtbi.2025.112355
Phylodynamics of Somatic Evolution: A Likelihood-Based Approach for Cellular Reproduction
Dieselhorst, T., & Berg, J, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 43(2), 06. Jan 2026, 10.1093/molbev/msag002
Stachura, P., Lu, Z., Kronberg, R. M., Xu, H. C., Liu, W., Tu, J.-W., Schaal, K., Kameri, E., Picard, D., Von Karstedt, S., Fischer, U., Bhatia, S., Lang, P. A., Borkhardt, A., & Pandyra, A. A, Cell Death & Disease, 16(1), 18. May 2025, 10.1038/s41419-025-07704-y
Ferroptosis triggers mitochondrial fragmentation via Drp1 activation
Pedrera, L., Prieto Clemente, L., Dahlhaus, A., Lotfipour Nasudivar, S., Tishina, S., Olmo González, D., Stroh, J., Yapici, F. I., Singh, R. P., Grotehans, N., Langer, T., García-Sáez, A. J., & Von Karstedt, S, Cell Death & Disease, 16(1), 25. Jan 2025, 10.1038/s41419-024-07312-2
High-density sampling reveals volume growth in human tumours
Angaji, A., Owusu, M., Velling, C., Dick, N., Weghorn, D., & Berg, J, eLife, 13, 26. Nov 2024, 10.7554/eLife.95338.3
Müller, N., Lorenz, C., Ostendorp, J., Heisel, F. S., Friese, U. P., Cartolano, M., Plenker, D., Tumbrink, H., Heimsoeth, A., Baedeker, P., Weiss, J., Ortiz-Cuaran, S., Büttner, R., Peifer, M., Thomas, R. K., Sos, M. L., Berg, J., & Brägelmann, J, Cancer Research, 83(15), 01. Aug 2023, 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-22-2605
Extrinsic cell death pathway plasticity: A driver of clonal evolution in cancer
Seidel, E., & Von Karstedt, S, Cell Death Discovery, 8(1), 26. Nov 2022, 10.1038/s41420-022-01251-7
Stochastic clonal dynamics and genetic turnover in exponentially growing populations
Angaji A., Velling C. and Berg J., J. Stat. Mech. 103502, 26. Oct 2021, 10.1088/1742-5468/ac257e
Network inference in the nonequilibrium steady state
Dettmer S., Nguyen H. C., and Berg J., Phys. Rev. E 94 (5) 052116, 10. November 2016, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.94.052116
Heterogeneous Mechanisms of Primary and Acquired Resistance to Third-Generation EGFR Inhibitors
Ortiz-Cuaran S., […], Berg J., […], Thomas R., Clinical Cancer Research 1915.2015, 1. June 2016, https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-15-1915