Major EU funding set to make leukemia therapies safer

A stem cell donation is a promising therapy for many leukemia patients. But the therapy has risks: It is not uncommon for leukemia to return, and in about half of those treated, the transferred immune cells attack the recipient’s tissue. Such acute graft-versus-host disease, or aGvHD, is just as life-threatening as a possible leukemia relapse. With an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros, the European Research Council is funding Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Freiburg, who, together with his team, is researching new starting points to improve the healing of patients after stem cell transplantation.