Prof. Dr. Hiltrud B. Brauch
Deputy Head of the Institute 2008 - 2020
Research Group Leader PharmacoOmics and Breast Cancer (retired)

Prof. Dr. Hiltrud Brauch

Major projects

  • Candidate and genome wide search for breast cancer susceptibility genes
  • Genotype – phenotype correlations for the description of breast cancer subtypes
  • Tamoxifen pharmacogenomics and translation
  • Estrogen receptor regulation
  • Pharmacogenomics of anti cancer drugs
  • Epigenetic approaches for the identification of novel treatment predictors and drug targets
  • PhD Curriculum “Fighting Drug Failure”

Selected References

Original Articles

Michailidou, Kyriaki; Lindström, Sara; Dennis, Joe; Beesley, Jonathan; Hui, Shirley; Kar, Siddhartha et al.: Association analysis identifies 65 new breast cancer risk loci. In: Nature 551 (7678), S. 92–94, 2017

Hoppe, Reiner; Achinger-Kawecka, Joanna; Winter, Stefan; Fritz, Peter; Lo, Wing-Yee; Schroth, Werner; Brauch, Hiltrud: Increased expression of miR-126 and miR-10a predict prolonged relapse-free time of primary oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer following tamoxifen treatment. In: European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) 49 (17), S. 3598–3608, 2013

Amaral S, Schroth W, Kugler S, et al. The Promoter C Specific ERa Isoform is Associated with Tamoxifen Outcome in Breast Cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 118:323-331, 2009

Ahmed S, Thomas G, Ghoussaini M, et al. Newly discovered breast cancer susceptibility loci on 3p24 and 17q23.2. Nature Genetics. 41(5):585-90, 2009

Jaremko M, Justenhoven C, Schroth W, et al. A Polymorphism of the DNA Repair enzyme XRCC1 is associated with treatment prediction in aqnthracycline and cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy of patients with primary invasive breast cancer. Pharmacogenetics and Genomics 17:529-538, 2007

Cox A, Dunning AM, Garcia-Closas M, et al. A common coding variant in CASP8 is associated with breast cancer risk. Nature Genetics 39:352-358, 2007 Schroth W, Antoniadou L, Fritz P, et al. Breast Cancer Treatment Outcome with Adjuvant Tamoxifen in Relation to Patient CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 Genotypes. Journal of Clinical Oncology 33:5187-5193, 2007

Jaremko M, Justenhoven C, Abraham BK et al. MALDI-TOF MS and TaqMan assisted SNP genotyping of DNA isolated from formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded tissues (FFPET) Human Mutation 25:232-238, 2005

Schmidt, L.; Duh, F. M.; Chen, F.; Kishida, T.; Glenn, G.; Choyke, P. et al.: Germline and somatic mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of the MET proto-oncogene in papillary renal carcinomas. In: Nature genetics 16 (1), S. 68–73, 1997

Brauch, H.; Johnson, B.; Hovis, J.; Yano, T.; Gazdar, A.; Pettengill, O. S. et al.: Molecular analysis of the short arm of chromosome 3 in small-cell and non-small-cell carcinoma of the lung. In: The New England journal of medicine 317 (18), S. 1109–1113 1987

Zbar, B.; Brauch, H.; Talmadge, C.; Linehan, M.: Loss of alleles of loci on the short arm of chromosome 3 in renal cell carcinoma. In: Nature 327 (6124), S. 721–724, 1987

Major Networks and Collaborations

Research Network Coordinator, Principle Investigator and International Network Collaborations 

  • The Interdisciplinary Study Group on Gene ENvironment Interactions and Breast CAncer in Germany (GENICA) for the identification of breast cancer susceptibility genes (funded by BMBF 1999-2010). This population-based case-control study recruited more than 2000 incident breast cancer cases and controls for the conduct of molecular epidemiological studies which have become an integral part of the research activities of the
  • Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC: since 2005) - Global networks of more than 90 studies investigating more than 320.000 breast cancer cases and controls for the identification of novel breast cancer susceptibility loci based on GWAS.
  • Collaborative Oncological Gene-Environment Study (COGS: since 2010-2015) - Mega-Consortium for the identification of genetic determinates of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer as well as lifestyle factors that influence the risk of these cancers; Identification of the genetics influence on type of tumor and prognosis of the diseases.
  • OncoArray Network (ongoing): Mega Consortium to gain new insight into the genetic architecture and mechanisms underlying breast, ovarian, prostate, colorectal, and lung cancers. Focus is on the discovery of new cancer susceptibility variants. In addition, through fine mapping and high-density genotyping, this project offers an unprecedented opportunity to determine variants in known loci and to identify new – and rarer – variants.
  • B_CAST (ongoing): 20,000 tumors from a unique worldwide collection from large-scale epidemiological studies, clinical studies and biobanks are subjected to targeted sequencing towards risk and prognosis modelling of breast cancer (2016).
  • BRIDGES (ongoing): Existing datasets will be expanded by sequencing of all known breast cancer susceptibility genes in 20,000 breast cancer cases and 20,000 controls from population-based studies, and 10,000 cases from multiple case families towards the identification of women at high-risk of breast cancer
  • International Tamoxifen Pharmacogenomics Consortium, member of the Steering Committee (ITPC), (2009 - 2016). Established global evidence for the role of Tamoxifen CYP2D6 pharmacogenetics for breast cancer outcome of ER positive early breast cancer.

Principle Investigator in German Research Networks

  • Improvement of Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Tübingen-Stuttgart (funded by BMBF), since 2005
  • MARIE-GENICA Consortium for the identification of constitutional factors predictive for the risk to develop breast cancer following hormone replacement therapy (MARIE: MAmmakarzinom RIsikofaktoren-Erhebung) (funded by BMBF), (2005-2010)
  • TAMENDOX: Innovation for Individualized Medicine: Genotype and phenotype guided supplementation of TAMoxifen standard therapy with ENDOXifen in breast cancer patients (Phase I/II clinical trial, funded by BMBF, since 2015 ongoing)

Lead Applicant and Coordinator of EU Training Site and Networks 

  • My personalized medicine oriented projects for innovative biomarker-guided clinical trial design and treatment concepts provide a platform for the training of national and international PhD students and post-doctoral fellows. Particularly the EU funded Marie Curie Programs FightingBreastCancer and the Innovative Training Network (ITN) FightingDrugFailure provided an opportunity for the training of 20 PhD students from 12 countries.
  • 5FP: Marie Curie Training Site Stuttgart/Tübingen: “Fighting Breast Cancer” (European PhD Training Program (2001 to 2005)
  • 7FP PEOPLE-Initial Training Network (ITN) FightingDrugFailure (2009-2013) The network establishes the first European Curriculum in the field of Pharmacogenomics for young investigators. The program foresees pharmacogenomic research training of 15 international young investigators at nine specialized academic and industry sites in Germany, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Russia, and Switzerland, and is supported by US researchers from the Mayo Clinic-NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN) and Georgetown University Medical Center.

Curriculum Vitae

Education and Professional Career

2008-2020

Deputy Head of Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology Stuttgart, Head Breast Cancer Susceptibility and Pharmacogenomics

2006

Extraordinary Professorship at the University Tübingen Medical School

2000

Venia Legendi in Molecular Pathology University Tübingen

1999-present

Head Molecular Mechanisms of Origin and Treatment of Breast Cancer, Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart

1996-1999

Head Research Laboratory and Gynecological Diagnostics, Womens Hospital Eppendorf, University of Hamburg, Germany; Venia Legendi in Molecular Biology

1992-1996

Head, Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Institute of Pathology and Pathological Anatomy, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich, Germany
Habilitation and Venia Legendi in Molecular Pathology

1990-1992

Scientist, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Germany

1988-1990

Scientist, LIB, PRI-Inc. NCI-FCRDC, Frederick, MD, USA

1985-1988

Fogarty International Visiting Fellowship, Program of Collaborative Research Experience in the United States, The National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA
Visiting Fellow, Laboratory of Immunobiology (LIB)-National Cancer Institute (NCI)-National Institutes of Health (NIH), Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center(FCRDC), Frederick, MD, USA

1981-1985

Dissertation: Regulation of Complement Lysis by a Membrane Glycoprotein (Glycophorin A), Institute of Immunology and Serology and Institute of Physical Chemistry, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany

1975-1981

Study of Chemistry (Diploma), University Fridericiana Karlsruhe (TH), Germany

Professional Memberships

  • 1996-present: American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)
  • 1996-present: AACR-Molecular Epidemiology Group (MEG)
  • 1996-present: AACR-Women in Cancer Research (WICR)
  • 1996-present: American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
  • 2000-present: Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie (GBM)
  • 2007-present: Verein für von der von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) Erkrankung betroffene Familien e.V. (Board of Scientists of the VHL Family Alliance Germany)

Scientific Journal Editorial Board Memberships

  • 2006-present: Pharmacogenetics and Genomics

Member of Organization Committees for Scientific Conferences

  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Conference: Pharmacogenomics & Personalized Medicine (since 2009)
  • New Developments in the Endocrine Treatment of Breast Cancer, IKP Stuttgart, February 5, 2009

Awards and Honors

  • Fogarty International Fellowship, program of collaborative research experience in the United States, The National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S.A. (1985-1989)
  • Susan G. Komen for the Cure Distinguished Lectureship, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC (2012)
  • Tamoxifen Team Award, Wall of Honour, Royal Society of Medicine, London, UK (2013)