The publication by SKINTEGRITY.CH Young Investigator Michael Cangkrama et al., about the discovery of a key role of mitochondria in the protumorigenic CAF phenotype and an activin A–mDia2–MIRO1 signaling axis in CAFs, was featured on the cover of the October issue of Cancer Research. Read the publication here.

Chronic disease often leads to fibrosis, a condition in which organ tissue suffers from excessive scarring. In a great collaboration, SKINTEGRITY.CH PI Prof. Christian Stockmann at the University of Zurich and an international team of colleagues (including our PIs Profs. Oliver Distler, Lukas Sommer and Sabine Werner as well as the Young Investigators Jing Chen, Zheng Fan and Elena Pachera) developed an immunotherapy that specifically targets the cause – activated fibroblasts – while leaving normal connective tissue cells unharmed. If this approach is also found to work in humans, it could lead to an effective treatment for fibrosis.

Read the full press release or the scientific publication in Cell Stem Cell.

(In the image: air-filled alveoli in healthy lung tissue on the left, versus fibrotic tissue on the right. © Christian Stockmann)

The SNSF has an "Advancing 3R" programme towards the more ethical use of animals in research (based on the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement). SKINTEGRITY.CH PIs Prof. Jörn Dengjel and Prof. Mark Tibbitt were awarded a grant from this programme, for their collaborative project, which also involves SKINTEGRITY.CH PIs Prof. Jürg Hafner, Prof. Edoardo Mazza and Prof. Sabine Werner as research partners. Read a press release from the University of Fribourg here: "Fewer animal experiments thanks to artificial models."

Listen to the latest episode of the ETH Podcast, where Professors Sabine Werner, Edoardo Mazza and Lukas Sommer give their enthusiastic insights into SKINTEGRITY.CH (the podcast is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts).

SKINTEGRITY.CH Young Investigator Dr. Michael Cangkrama wins the 2021 Pierre Fabre-Avène Swiss Skin Cancer Award. We congratulate him and wish him all the best for his ongoing research!

For the latest news on the developments in our consortium, you can follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@skintegrityCH).

Out of several collaborative and interdisciplinary scientific papers, all published in 2021, the Young Investigator Award was given to Adam Wahlsten and Dominic Rütsche for their excellent work. Congratulations!

A wonderful SKINTEGRITY.CH collaboration led to a publication about optoacoustic imaging of angiogenesis in healing wounds in Advanced Science. Read the full paper here.

SKINTEGRITY.CH member Prof. Helma Wennemers and Dr. Matthew Aronoff are the winners of the Spark Award 2020. The Spark Award is given for the most promising invention at ETH Zurich resulting in a patent application.

The work of Matthew Aronoff et al. demonstrates how their invention of a reactive collagen peptide can light up lysyl oxidase (LOX) activity in remodeling collagen in vivo and in situ, as shown in stains of healthy skin and cancer sections. Read it here!