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Reposted by Thomas Walle

IDIBAPS @idibaps.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

🆕Thomas Walle joins #IDIBAPS as head of the "Computational Cancer Biomedicine" group His research has focused on the role of immune cells in the success of cancer treatment @science-wallet.bsky.social 👉https://f.mtr.cool/ahlcrwcibl

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Reposted by Thomas Walle

JCI insight @insight.jci.org · 03/10/2025

How can we study the effects of radiation on immune cells in #cancer? Using innovative human pancreatic tumor models, @science-wallet.bsky.social and team reveal photon and particle radiotherapy induce signals—grouped as modules—that attract immune cells: insight.jci.org/articles/vie...

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Radiotherapy-immune crosstalk is robust but limited Immune modulation will require targeting sets of chemokines Dose escalation alone can’t push beyond the biological ceiling Understanding these concepts is key to better radio-immunotherapies 9/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

This builds on models pioneered by Niels Halama and preserves real tumor architecture and cell–cell interactions, letting us study SASP in a setting far closer to the patient’s tumor than cell culture. 8/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

5/ New tools Studying SASP in humans was possible thanks to our improved patient-derived pancreatic tumor explant model — fresh tumor slices kept alive ex vivo and irradiated under controlled conditions. 7/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

4/ Conserved mechanism Photon, proton, and carbon ion irradiation all trigger similar chemokine modules and immune recruitment patterns — underscoring shared regulatory pathways. 6/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

3/ Capped response Chemokine release rises with dose, but only up to a plateau (~10 Gy biologically effective dose). Even high-LET carbon ions don’t surpass this ceiling in SASP output or chemotaxis. 5/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

2/ Redundancy This overlap means several chemokines can recruit the same immune cell subsets. Blocking a single chemokine has limited effect — multiple targets are needed to alter recruitment. (Inspired by Cassandra Burdziak's work: 10.1126/science.add5327) 4/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

1/ Modular SASP After irradiation, tumor cells release chemokines in defined “modules.” Each module communicates with several receptors expressed on the same immune cell types. 3/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

- Radiation triggers coordinated chemokine modules (SASP) - Multiple chemokines in each module target the same immune cells - Chemokine release is maxed out at clinically relevant dose ranges - A new explant model allows studying radiation-induced SASP in patient PDAC tissue. 2/9

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

🧵Radiotherapy immune signaling is modular, redundant — and has a limit. Together with @joschakraske @peterhuber_hd @halama_immuno @UKHD_radonc our new study in fully human systems shows that: t.co/GzH3N6gElf 1/9

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Reposted by Thomas Walle

Manu Saraswat @manusaraswat.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

🧠 Excited to share my main PhD project! We mapped the regulatory rules governing Glioblastoma plasticity using single-cell multi-omics and deep learning. This work is part of a two-paper series with @bayraktarlab.bsky.social @oliverstegle.bsky.social and @moritzmall.bsky.social, Preprint at end🧵👇

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Together we want to understand how pancreatic cancer reprograms our immune responses at the earliest stages of its development. 4/4

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Direna was one of the first to show how inflammation helps pancreatic cancers develop. Tian created powerful models systems from patient-derived tissues which we can now use to study these processes in a human context. I'm just doing the computer stuff. 3/4

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Talia and Teresa redefined how we treat pancreatic cancer particularly in high risk individuals, but it remains a dreadful disease. One key concept is to intercept pancreatic cancer before it develops into the aggressive disease we know from our patients. 2/4

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Absolute pleasure to host our SIMMBAP consortium in Heidelberg to brainstorm how to catch pancreatic cancer before it becomes deadly! @Teresa Macarulla @Talia Golan @tiantian @direnaac.bsky.social @vhio.bsky.social @irbbarcelona.org @Sheba Medical Center @nct-heidelberg.bsky.social 1/4

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Visually looks more like a t-sne to me ;)

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Thomas Walle @science-wallet.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Fantastic week with #CCETRYTRAC members from @cancercoreeurope.bsky.social . Lots of stimulating discussions how to transform immune responses into actionable clinical diagnostics!

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