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  • Clinical research
      Interdisciplinary pediatric study center (Hauner iPSC)
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                Binder Lab
                  Braun Lab
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                                Klein Lab
                                  Kotlarz Lab
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                                            • PhD Program
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                                                    High throughput sequencing
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                                                          • News/Events
                                                              Meinhard von Pfaundler-Lectures
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                                                              • Join us!
                                                              1. CCRC-HaunerEN
                                                              2. Research Labs
                                                              3. Braun Lab

                                                              Braun Lab

                                                              Max Eder Junior Research Group

                                                              • Research topics

                                                                • Targeted therapy for childhood cancers
                                                                • Genome-wide genetic screens
                                                                • Role of RNA life cycle in cancer biology
                                                                • Personalized therapy of pediatric tumors


                                                                Dr. med. Christian J. Braun

                                                                ✉ chr.braun@med.lmu.de

                                                                ☎ +49-89-4400-54724

                                                              • Our mission - precision oncology for children with cancer

                                                                Every child is unique – and so is every cancer! This means that a treatment that successfully works for one little patient may not be effective for another. It is our mission to better understand the complicated molecular processes specific to each individual tumor – and to exploit this knowledge for the development of molecularly targeted and fully personalized treatment approaches.   

                                                                Synthetic sickness - and why we believe "super cancers" don't exist

                                                                Synthetic lethality is a concept in molecular oncology that exploits the vulnerabilities of cancer cells while sparing normal cells. It's as easy as that!

                                                                We are driven by the idea that while cancer cells are "fitter" than most other cells of the human body, the complicated rewiring of biochemical processes that drives proliferation, therapeutic resistance or metastasis also renders them "addicted" to druggable processes. This concept is not new and has been exploited by doctors since the 1940s: Chemotherapy harms quickly dividing tumor cells more than many other body cells.

                                                                It is our mission to bring this to a new level and define molecular cancer vulnerabilities. Instead of administering highly toxic chemotherapeutics, we develop therapeutic approaches that interfere precisely with a molecular signaling pathways a specific tumor is addicted to.

                                                                We prefer the term "synthetic sickness" - because we do not neccesarily require that a new molecular approach must kill tumor cells. Reducing their "fitness" is oftentimes enough. But that's just the fineprint. 

                                                                Harnessing the power of CRISPR genome editing

                                                                We employ cutting edge CRISPR technologies to decipher and therapeutically exploit molecular addictions of cancer cells. CRISPR genome editing was a real game changer for our work and enabled us to systematically probe whether a specific tumor cell is addicted to the function of a certain gene. We used to do this gene by gene – which is long, costly and slow. To speed up our discovery process, we now employ CRISPR screens to do this in parallel for thousands of genes and within a couple of days. These experiment cannot only be performed in plastic dishes, but also in organoid models or even in living tissues. 

                                                                Drugging aberrant transcription and RNA metabolism

                                                                We have a special interest drugging transcription and RNA metabolism. Such processes are frequently aberrant in cancer, oftentimes druggable with small molecules and right at the heart of cancer biology! Our favorite molecular target is PRMT5 – an enzyme that regulates a specific splicing program centered around intron biology. PRMT5 was the top hit of one of our screens (Cancer Cell, 2017), several clinical trials have since been launched for cancer patients.


                                                              • Dr. med. Christian Braun

                                                                Group Leader

                                                                ✉ chr.braun@med.lmu.de

                                                                ☎ 089-4400-54724

                                                                Room: K0.05

                                                                Andres Carbonell


                                                                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


                                                                Moritz Schanzer, Cand. med.

                                                                Doctoral Researcher (MD track)

                                                                ✉ moritz.schanzer@med.uni-muenchen.de

                                                                ☎ 089-4400-54724

                                                                Room: K0.31


                                                                Heidi Noll-Puchta


                                                                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

                                                                ☎ 089-4400-54724

                                                                Room: K0.31


                                                                Liana Gahleitner, Cand. med.

                                                                Doctoral Researcher (MD track)

                                                                ✉ Liana.Gahleitner@med.uni-muenchen.de

                                                                ☎ 089-4400-54724

                                                                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


                                                                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 

                                                                ✉ John.Ku@med.uni-muenchen.de



                                                                Satyendra Kumar, PhD

                                                                Postdoctoral Researcher

                                                                PhD Karolinska Institute, Sweden

                                                                ✉ satyendra.kumar@med.uni-muenchen.de


                                                              • Selected Publications

                                                                C. J. Braun*, A. C. Adames, D. Saur & R. Rad*. Tutorial: design and execution of CRISPR in vivo screens. *Co-corresponding

                                                                Nature protocols (2022)
                                                                Journal Impact Factor2021: 17.021     

                                                                            >> Selected "Paper of the month" by LMU's medical faculty    Link

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI

                                                                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

                                                                DOI
                                                                All publications Braun Lab
                                                              • 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)! 

                                                                Andres' podcasts

                                                                Andres is very passionate about making science & molecular biology accessible to the general public. Check out his podcasts!

                                                                Youtube
                                                                Spotify
                                                              • 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

                                                              Research at CCRC Hauner

                                                              Contact LMU Klinikum

                                                              Contact CCRC Hauner

                                                              Haunersches

                                                              CCRC Hauner

                                                              Kinderklinik und Kinderpoliklinik

                                                              im Dr. von Haunerschen Kinderspital

                                                              Ludwig Maximilians Universität München

                                                              Lindwurmstr. 4

                                                              80337 Munich, Germany

                                                              ☎ +49-89-4400-57705

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                                                              • German - de
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                                                              Comprehensiv...

                                                              • Clinical research
                                                                • Interdisciplinary pediatric study center (Hauner iPSC)
                                                                • Ped-COVID-19 Study
                                                                • Michael Albert
                                                                • Scivias Study
                                                                • TRACE Study
                                                              • Research Labs
                                                                • Binder Lab
                                                                • Braun Lab
                                                                • Feuchtinger Lab
                                                                • Griese Lab
                                                                • Hauck Lab
                                                                • Hübner Lab
                                                                • Jeremias lab
                                                                • Kim-Hellmuth Lab
                                                                • Klein Lab
                                                                • Kotlarz Lab
                                                                • Lange-Sperandio Lab
                                                                • von Mutius Lab
                                                                • Schaub Lab
                                                                • Schwerd Lab
                                                                • Schmid Lab
                                                                • Koletzko Lab
                                                              • PhD Program
                                                              • Technology platforms
                                                                • Bioinformatics
                                                                • Flow Cytometry
                                                                • High throughput sequencing
                                                                • Microscopy
                                                                • Pre-GMP Facility
                                                                • Mass spectrometry
                                                                • Hauner Biobank
                                                              • News/Events
                                                                • Meinhard von Pfaundler-Lectures
                                                                • Klaus Betke Symposium
                                                              • Join us!