Braun Lab
Max Eder Junior Research Group
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We are trying to understand what mechanisms are employed by childhood cancers to fuel their oncogenic signaling machinery. In order to do so, we employ state of the art model systems for pediatric tumors, high-throughput CRISPR and RNAi screens, comprehensive analyses of transcriptional landscapes as well as customized experimental pipelines for the establishment of biomarker profiles.
Our group is particularly interested in discovering and characterizing new targetable vulnerabilities to advance the therapy of pediatric nervous system tumors such as glioma and neuroblastoma.

All classes of cellular RNAs are subject to direct and post-transcriptional modification. RNA binding proteins (RBPs) specifically recognize many of these modifications and consecutively influence RNA stability, alternative splicing, location and decay. There is emerging evidence that both developing tissues and cancer cells utilize these ‘epitranscriptional’ processes to orchestrate gene expression profiles in a coordinated fashion (Braun and Hemann, Curr Opin Genet Dev, 2019).
Not surprisingly, core ‘epitranscriptional’ regulators such as splice factors are frequently subject to mutation in cancer. We have previously found that the splicing rate of specific introns contributes to gene expression orchestration in both physiology and cancer. Intriguingly, this process represents a targetable vulnerability (Braun et al., Cancer Cell, 2017).
Our lab is interested in deeper characterizing this observation and in systematically analyzing the role of post-transcriptional RNA biology in childhood cancer.

We are trying to understand what mechanisms are employed by childhood cancers to fuel their oncogenic signaling machinery. In order to do so, we employ state of the art model systems for pediatric tumors, high-throughput CRISPR and RNAi screens, comprehensive analyses of transcriptional landscapes as well as customized experimental pipelines for the establishment of biomarker profiles. We have successfully applied these experimental systems to several disease entities such as brain cancer, lymphoma and leukemia in the past.
Our group is particularly interested in discovering and characterizing new targetable vulnerabilities to advance the therapy of pediatric nervous system tumors such as glioma and neuroblastoma, but are also eager to collaborate on applying our screening technologies to biological questions far away from molecular oncology.
Many targeted cancer therapies fail in clinical trials – which is dilemma for patients, society and health care economy. In general, the effectiveness of targeted therapies tends to fall behind expectations when there is no stratifying biomarker available enabling clinicians to restrict treatment to sensitive sub-cohorts of patients. When characterizing novel therapeutic vulnerabilities, we therefore aim to systematically establish gene expression signatures predictive of therapeutic sensitivity

Andres Carbonell Adames, M. Sc.
Doctoral Researcher (PhD track)
M.Sc. LMU Munich, B. Sc. Penn State, U.S..A
✉ Andres.Carbonell@med.uni-muenchen.de
☎ 089-4400-54724
Room: K0.31

Annika Danker, Cand. med.
Doctoral Researcher (MD track)
✉ Annika.Danker@med.uni-muenchen.de
☎ 089-4400-54724
Room: K0.31

Daniel Schäfer, Cand. med.
Doctoral Researcher (MD track)
Jointly supervised with Kimberly Stegmaier
at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School
Moritz Schanzer, Cand. med.
Doctoral Researcher (MD track)
✉ moritz.schanzer@med.uni-muenchen.de
☎ 089-4400-54724
Room: K0.31
Heidi Noll-Puchta, VTA
Technician & Lab Manager
✉ Heidi.Noll-Puchta@med.uni-muenchen.de
☎ 089-4400-54724
Room: K0.31

Mark Rassner,
Dr. med. Dipl.-Mol.med.
Clinician Scientist
✉ Mark.Rassner@med.uni-muenchen.de
Room: K0.31

Liana Gahleitner, Cand. med.
Doctoral Researcher (MD track)
✉ Liana.Gahleitner@med.uni-muenchen.de
Room: K0.31

Dorothea Mock, Cand. med.
Doctoral Researcher (MD track)
✉ dorothea.mock@med.uni-muenchen.de
☎ 089-4400-54724
Room: K0.31
Mayra Lenz, Cand. med.
Doctoral Researcher (MD track)
✉ mayra.lenz@med.uni-muenchen.de
☎ 089-4400-54724
Room: K0.31
Alumni

John Ku, B. Sc.
Master Thesis Student
B. Sc. California State Polytechnic University, USA

Satyendra Kumar, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD Karolinska Institute, Sweden
✉ satyendra.kumar@med.uni-muenchen.de
Selected Publications
T. Kaltenbacher, J. Loprich, R. Maresch, J. Weber, S. Muller, R. Oellinger, N. Gross, J. Griger, N. de Andrade Kratzig, P. Avramopoulos, D. Ramanujam, S. Brummer, S. A. Widholz, S. Barthel, C. Falcomata, A. Pfaus, A. Alnatsha, J. Mayerle, M. Schmidt-Supprian, M. Reichert, G. Schneider, U. Ehmer, C. J. Braun, D. Saur, S. Engelhardt, and R. Rad. CRISPR somatic genome engineering and cancer modeling in the mouse pancreas and liver.
Nature protocols (2022)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 17.021
J. Weber, C. J. Braun, D. Saur, R. Rad. In vivo functional screening for systems-level integrative cancer genomics. In vivo functional screening for systems-level integrative cancer genomics.
Nature Reviews Cancer (2020)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 69.800
M. Becker, H. Noll-Puchta, D. Amend, F. Nolte, C. Fuchs, I. Jeremias*, C. J. Braun*. CLUE: a bioinformatic and wet-lab pipeline for multiplexed cloning of custom sgRNA libraries.
Nucleic Acids Research (2020)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 19.160
C. J. Braun*, M. Stanciu*, P. L. Boutz*, J. C. Patterson, D. Calligaris, F. Higuchi, R. Neupane, S. Fenoglio, D. P. Cahill, H. Wakimoto, N. Y. R. Agar, M. B. Yaffe, P. A. Sharp, M. T. Hemann, J. A. Lees. Coordinated Splicing of Regulatory Detained Introns within Oncogenic Transcripts Creates an Exploitable Vulnerability in Malignant Glioma. *equal contributions
Cancer Cell (2017)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 38.585
C. J. Braun*, P. M. Bruno*, M. A. Horlbeck, L. A. Gilbert, J. S. Weissman, M. T. Hemann. Versatile in vivo regulation of tumor phenotypes by dCas9 mediated transcriptional perturbation. *equal contributions
PNAS (2016)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 10.700
I. G. Cannell, K. A. Merrick*, S. Morandell*, C. Z. Zhu, C. J. Braun, R. A. Grant, E. R. Cameron, M. Tsao, M.T. Hemann and M. B. Yaffe. A Pleiotropic RNA-Binding Protein Controls Distinct Cell Cycle Checkpoints to Drive Resistance of p53-defective Tumors to Chemotherapy.
Cancer Cell (2015)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 38.585
C. J. Braun*, K. Boztug*, A. Paruzynski*, M. Witzel*, A. Schwarzer, M. Rothe, U. Modlich, R. Beier, G. Göhring, D. Steinemann, R. Fronza, C. R. Ball, R. Haemmerle, S. Naundorf, K. Kühlcke, M. Rose, C. Fraser, L. Mathias, R. Ferrari, M. R. Abboud, W. Al-Herz, I. Kondratenko, L. Maródi, H. Glimm, B. Schlegelberger, A. Schambach, M. H. Albert, M. Schmidt, C. von Kalle, and C. Klein. Gene Therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome--long-term efficacy and genotoxicity. *equal contributions
Science translational medicine (2014)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 19.359
C. P. Pallasch, I. Leskov, C. J. Braun, D. Vorholt, A. Drake, Y. M. Soto-Feliciano, E. H. Bent, J. Schwamb, B. Iliopoulou, N. Kutsch, N. van Rooijen, L. P. Frenzel, C. M. Wendtner, L. Heukamp, K. A. Kreuzer, M. Hallek, J. Chen, and M. T. Hemann. Sensitizing Protective Tumor Microenvironments to Antibody-Mediated Therapy.
Cell (2014)
Journal Impact Factor2021: 66.850
CLUE: Multiplexed sgRNA library design and production
Pooled sgRNA libraries targeting hundreds or thousands of individual genes are right at the heart of functional genomics. Such libraries are broadly available, but usually not tailored to the scientific interest of researchers. With our tool CRISPR clue were were out to bring custom sgRNA library production to all labs - streamlining the cloning process, lowering synthesis costs and reducing bioinformatics to the bare minimum. Check out www.crispr-clue.de and the manuscript at Nucleic Acids Research (NAR)!
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Join us!
We are highly enthusiastic about science - but also love to teach, discuss, collaborate and hang out.
If you are interested in CRISPR screens, functional genomics, genetic crosstalk, context dependence, translation into clinic and the discovery of new treatment opportunities for childhood cancers: please don't hesitate to send an email to Christian (chr.braun@med.lmu.de) or any of the current lab members.
Christian Braun Lab
Kinderklinik und Kinderpoliklinik im Dr. von Haunerschen Kinderspital,
Klinikum der Universität München, LMU München
Postal Address: Lindwurmstr. 4
Visiting Address: Research Building, Lindwurmstraße 2a
80337 Munich
Germany
Room: K 0.5
Phone: +49 (0)89 - 4400 - 54724
Fax: +49 (0)89 - 4400 - 57702
Email: chr.braun@med.lmu.de
Lab Manager: Heidi Noll-Puchta
Postal Address: Lindwurmstr. 4
Visiting Address: Research Building, Lindwurmstraße 2a
80337 Munich
Germany
Room: K 0.31
Phone: +49 (0)89 - 4400 - 54724
Fax: +49 (0)89 - 4400 - 57702
Email: Heidi.Noll-Puchta@med.uni-muenchen.de