I am grateful and honored to have been named one of Germany’s 100 #WomenOfTheYear by @FOCUS_Magazin for my contributions to #Cancer #Research and #PersonalizedMedicine.
Early Cancer Development and Prevention
The Kübler Lab is an interdisciplinary research group working at the interface of biology, computational biology, and medical oncology. The lab specializes in studying the molecular mechanisms and genomic changes that initiate and drive cancer development, using novel experimental and computational technologies. A better understanding of the key processes underlying cancer onset and progression will ultimately enable us to intervene at an early stage and prevent cancer, an approach instrumental in improving patient outcome.
Main research topics
Cancer is the result of clonal evolution, where genomic changes in normal cells can lead to the formation of early precancerous lesions. Additional accumulation of molecular alterations can then result in the development of invasive cancer. However, if detected and treated early, precancerous lesions can be cured before they progress to cancer.
The Kübler Lab is dedicated to investigating these genomic alterations and their impact on cancer development. We develop and apply innovative experimental multi-omics techniques to extract multiple types of molecular information from archived samples. These novel methods have the potential to unlock archives as a valuable resource for translational research, particularly in the study of uncommon cancers and early tumorigenesis.
The Kübler Lab also develops novel computational methods that predict the cell-of-origin of cancer and identifies the susceptibilities of individual cell types for cancer transformation. By combining our cutting-edge computational and experimental techniques, we can obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the molecular changes that are involved in the initiation, progression, and transformation of pre-malignant lesions to invasive cancer.
Our long-term vision is to improve precision medicine and to translate our findings to the clinic by innovating strategies for the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer and its precursors.
Major Publications
AUGUST 2022, Science
Diverse mutational landscapes in human lymphocytes
Machado HE, Mitchell E*, Øbro NF*, Kübler K*, Davies M, Leongamornlert D, Cull A, Maura F, Sanders MA, Cagan ATJ, McDonald C, Belmonte M, Shepherd MS, Vieira Braga FA, Osborne RJ, Mahbubani K, Martincorena I, Laurenti E, Green AR, Getz G, Polak P, Saeb-Parsy K, Hodson DJ, Kent DG, Campbell PJ. Nature. Aug;608(7924):724-732. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05072-7 (*, contributed equally)
AUGUST 2019, Science
RNA sequence analysis reveals macroscopic somatic clonal expansion across normal tissues
Yizhak K, Aguet F, Kim J, Hess JM, Kübler K, Grimsby J, Frazer R, Zhang H, Haradhvala NJ, Rosebrock D, Livitz D, Li X, Arich-Landkof E, Shoresh N, Stewart C, Segrè AV, Branton PA, Polak P, Ardlie KG, Getz G. R 2019; 364: 6444. doi: 10.1126/science.aaw0726
JANUARY 2019, bioRxiv
Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Network.Tumor mutational landscape is a record of the pre-malignant state
Kübler K *, Karlić R* Haradhvala NJ, Ha K, Kim J, Kuzman M, Jiao W, Gakkhar S, Mouw KW, Braunstein LZ, Elemento O, Biankin AO, Rooman I, Miller M, Karthaus WR, Nogiec CD, Juvenson E, Curry E, Mino-Kenudson M, Ellisen LW, Brown R, Gusev A, Tomasetti C, Lolkema MP, Steeghs N, van Herpen C, Kim H-G, Lee H, VlahovicÃåek K, Bernstein BE, Sawyers CL, Hoadley KA, Cuppen E, Koren A, Arndt PF, Louis DN, Stein LD, Foulkes WD, Polak P, Getz G on behalf of the PCAWG Pathology and Clinical Correlates Working Group, and the ICGC/TCGA bioRxiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/517565 (*, contributed equally),
AUGUST 2018, Cancer Cell
Widespread Chromosomal Losses and Mitochondrial DNA Alterations as Genetic Drivers in Hürthle Cell Carcinoma
Gopal RK*, Kübler K*, Calvo SE, Polak P, Livitz D, Rosebrock D, Sadow PM, Campbell B, Donovan SE, Amin S, Gigliotti BJ, Grabarek Z, Hess JM, Stewart C, Braunstein LZ, Arndt PF, Mordecai S, Shih AR, Chaves F, Zhan T, Lubitz CC, Kim J, Iafrate AJ, Wirth L, Parangi S, Leshchiner I, Daniels GH, Mootha VK, Dias-Santagata D, Getz G, McFadden DG.
AUGUST 2017, Nature Genetics
A mutational signature reveals alterations underlying deficient homologous recombination repair in breast cancer
Polak P, Kim J, Braunstein LZ, Karlic R, Haradhavala NJ, Tiao G, Rosebrock D, Livitz D, Kübler K, Mouw KW, Kamburov A, Maruvka YE, Leshchiner I, Lander ES, Golub TR, Zick A, Orthwein A, Lawrence MS, Batra RN, Caldas C, Haber DA, Laird PW, Shen H, Ellisen LW, D’Andrea AD, Chanock SJ, Foulkes WD, Getz. Nature Genetics;49(10):1476-1486 doi: 10.1038/ng.3934.
News
Happy Holidays from the Kübler Lab
The Kübler Lab wishes everyone a joyful holiday season and a happy new year filled with discoveries and success.
Refining Prognostic Capabilities in Breast Cancer
Jumping right into her Masters research topic, our student Ali has just published her first review paper – have a look at it here and gain some up-to-date insights into the role of single-cell RNA sequencing in the transcriptome analysis of ductal carcinoma in situ!
Minigolfing adventures
The Team Kübler rang in the summery season by paying a visit to the nostalgic 18-holes minigolf course in the city park Steglitz! Some balls hit, some missed, and some went missing, but ice cream made up for lost points and some may have developed a taste for winning – to the next match!
TEAM-Staffellauf 2024
Fun and top times at the Charité Team Relay 2024: In summery temperatures and cheered on by a large, high-spirited crowd, Team Kübler achieved an excellent 16th place overall and the 10th place among mixed teams at the annual major sporting event.
Bundestag meets BIH
Im Juni hat Laura Kraft, MdB und Obfrau im Ausschuss für Bildung, Forschung und Technikfolgenabschätzung, dem BIH einen Besuch abgestattet, zum Austausch über das wichtige Thema Frauengesundheit und die Sichtbarkeit und Förderung von Frauen in der Wissenschaft.
Patientenumfrage: Früherkennung von Tamoxifen-assoziiertem Uteruskrebs
Bitte Teilnehmen & Teilen: Was ist für Brustkrebspatientinnen bei der Einnahme von Tamoxifen wichtig? Mit dieser in Zusammenarbeit mit dem DKFZ veröffentlichten Umfrage möchten wir individuelle Unterschiede in Nebenwirkungsprofilen verstehen, um die Behandlung mit Tamoxifen in Zukunft noch sicherer zu machen.
FUNDED BY ERASMUS & DAAD
Congratulations to Ali who received an ERASMUS+ Traineeship Bursary for Recent Graduates to work on her breast cancer project. She was also awarded the DAAD Study Scholarship for Masters Students of all Academic Disciplines, as one of a handful of students in the Ireland & UK region, to stay with us and start her Masters programme at a German university of her choice next semester!
TRANSLATION: LINKING SCIENTIFIC AND CLINICAL TRAINING
Our postdoctoral research fellow Leonie was accepted into the DKTK School of Oncology, funded by the DKFZ to improve the expertise of young clinicians and junior researchers in the field of translational oncology. Leonie will participate in the program alongside her residency training, with a clinical and scientific focus on translational oncology.
International Women’s Day
This International Women’s Day, let’s show the world how women and girls make the science universe brighter! #ScienceNeedsHerSpark #GirlPowerInScience
Overcoming therapeutic barriers through cooperation
Our PhD student Claudia was admitted to the Berlin School of Integrative Oncology, the joint graduate school of the Charité, Humboldt University, Free University and non-university research institutions, where talented students investigate the most demanding problems in clinical oncology in an inter-transdisciplinary, international and cooperative environment.
Collaborations and Fellowships
To get trained in the bioinformatic analysis of genomic data from the best in the field, our research fellow Leonie spent the last 6 months of 2023 at Harvard Medical School as well as the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and had her endeavors founded by a Charité Ingeborg Rapoport Fellowship and a Short-Term Fellowship by the Deutsche Krebshilfe.
More women in STEM: Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Award
Congratulations to our research assistant Ali, who was among a handful of female students selected across all disciplines at her alma mater, the University College Cork, to receive the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Scholarship Award for the Academic Year 2023/24!
Collaborations
Team
Prof. Kirsten Kübler is a clinician scientist, and her expertise in clinical oncology is complemented by her experience in tumor genomics using both experimental and bioinformatics methods. Before joining the BIH @Charité as the BIH Johanna Quandt Professor for Early Cancer Development and Prevention, she conducted research at the Broad Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, where she still holds affiliations.
Affiliations
Postdoctoral Fellow (comp)
I am building a database of molecular alterations in healthy tissue for comparative analysis with cancer, aiming to decipher the earliest stages of cancer development.
Ambitious, Affable, Active
Postdoctoral Fellow (exp)
My research focuses on the discovery of the cell-of-origin of uncommon gynecological and breast cancers, exploiting cutting-edge techniques and establishing novel assays.
Curious, Determined, Positive
MD Thesis Student (exp)
The aim of my research is to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying tamoxifen-associated uterine cancer development, with the goal of developing a screening method.
Open, Thorough, Joyful
Student Research Assistant (comp)
I am analyzing scRNA-seq data from normal breast tissue, DCIS and breast cancer to facilitate insights into the molecular landscape and cellular heterogeneity.
Determined, Adventurous, Friendly
Administrative Assistant
I am the go-to person for all administrative needs at the Kübler Lab. Being a non-scientist, it fills me with excitement to contribute to the research in this capacity.
Curious, Open-minded, Friendly
Lab Technician/Lab Manager
My mission is to set up a well-organized, safe and clean laboratory and to support the group in establishing and validating molecular multi-omics techniques.
Diligent, Well-organized, Empathetic
Master Thesis Student (exp/comp)
My project focuses on investigating the epigenomic landscape of mucinous ovarian cancer from cell lines and FFPE tissue samples.
Reliable, Tenacious, Resourceful
Scientific Writer/Project Manager
As a scientist-turned-scientific editor, I support the group in publishing and communicating their work on cancer development to different audiences.
Curious, Creative, Ambitious
PhD Student (exp)
My research aims to identify the cell type susceptible to genomic alterations and to analyze clonal expansion in normal and precancerous tissues of ovarian cancer patients.
Passionate, Persevering, Optimistic
Master Thesis Student (comp)
I develop a Snakemake pipeline to analyze somatic variants in
pancreatic adenocarcinoma, identify driver mutations, and characterize
the cancer cell-of-origin.
Lab Technician
My aim is to optimize and establish new experimental techniques to
identify the molecular changes that initiate cancer development.
Job Offers
Join our Cancer Research Team. We are constantly seeking passionate individuals who share our dedication to cancer research. If you are eager to make a difference and contribute to groundbreaking advancements in the field, we want to hear from you. To express your interest, reach out to kirsten.kuebler[at]bih-charite.de
Contact
The Kübler Lab
Prof. Dr. Kirsten Kübler
Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH)
Spreepalais
Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Straße 2
10178 Berlin
Campus Benjamin Franklin (CBF)
Hindenburgdamm 30
12203 Berlin