For their investigations they used a new established cell model for which they isolated cancer stem cells directly from the patients' tumors. Using this special culture system, they were able to test potential new cancer drugs. One of these, a novel inhibitor of the epigenetic regulator KDM4, co-developed in the lab of Prof. Schüle, showed promising results.

The researchers published their work in the scientific journal Cancer Research.

Metzger E, Stepputtis SS, Strietz J, Preca BT, Urban S, Willmann D, Allen A, Zenk F, Iovino N, Bronsert P, Proske A, Follo M, Boerries M, Stickeler E, Xu J, Wallace MB, Stafford JA, Kanouni T, Maurer J, Schüle R. (2017): KDM4 inhibition targets breast cancer stem-like cells. Cancer Res. 2017 Sep 7. [Epub ahead of print]

Also interesting:
Young K. Chen, Tiziana Bonaldi, Alessandro Cuomo, Joselyn R. Del Rosario, David J. Hosfield, Toufike Kanouni, Shih-chu Kao, Chon Lai, Neethan A. Lobo, Jennifer Matuszkiewicz, Andrew McGeehan, Shawn M. O’Connell, Lihong Shi, Jeffrey A. Stafford, Ryan K. Stansfield, James M. Veal, Michael S. Weiss, Natalie Y. Yuen, and Michael B. Wallace (2017): Design of KDM4 Inhibitors with Antiproliferative Effects in Cancer Models. ACS Med. Chem. Lett.: 8 (8), pp 869–874. DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.7b00220.

More information:
http://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/newsroom-and-media/2017/schuele-kdm4-2017/