Overexpression of the oncostatin-M receptor in cervical squamous cell carcinoma is associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and poor overall survival.

BACKGROUND: Copy-number gain of the oncostatin-M receptor (OSMR) occurs frequently in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and is associated with adverse clinical outcome. We previously showed that OSMR overexpression renders cervical SCC cells more sensitive to the major ligand oncostatin-M (OSM), which increases migration and invasion in vitro. We hypothesised that a major contribution to this phenotype would come from epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). METHODS: We performed a comprehensive integrated study, involving in vitro cell line studies, in vivo animal models and numerous clinical samples from a variety of anatomical sites. RESULTS: In independent sets of cervical, head/neck and lung SCC tissues, OSMR expression levels correlated with multiple EMT-associated phenotypic markers and transcription factors. OSM treatment of OSMR overexpressing cervical SCC cells produced consistent EMT changes and increased tumour sphere formation in suspension culture. In a mouse model, OSMR overexpressing SCC cells treated with OSM showed significant increases in lung colonisation. The biological effects of exogenous OSM were mirrored by highly significant adverse overall survival in cervical SCCs with OSMR overexpression (N=251). CONCLUSIONS: OSM:OSMR interactions are able to induce EMT, increased cancer stem cell-like properties and enhanced lung colonisation in SCC cells. These changes are likely to contribute to the highly significant adverse outcome associated with OSMR overexpression in cervical SCCs.This work was supported by Cancer Research UK (Programme Grant A13080).This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Nature Publishing Group

„Social Manufacturing and Logistics“ – Arbeit in der digitalisierten Produktion

Der Beitrag beruht auf Arbeiten des Forschungsprojektes „SoMaLI“ (Social Manufacturing and Logistics), das vom BMWi im Rahmen des Technologieprogramms „Autonomik für Industrie 4.0“ gefördert wird. Hierbei werden u. a. Experteninterviews in Interessenverbänden (V1-V3), Entwicklerbetrieben (E1-E3) und Anwenderunternehmen (A1-A4) durchgeführt. Das Projekt wird an der Technischen Universität Dortmund in Kooperation des Forschungsgebietes Industrie- und Arbeitsforschung (FIA) und des Lehrstuhls für Förder- und Lagerwesen (FLW) durchgeführt. Zur SoMaLI-Projektgruppe gehören Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen, Michael ten Hompel, Peter Ittermann, Johannes Dregger, Jonathan Niehaus, Thomas Kirks und Benedikt Mättig

Managerial challenges of Industry 4.0: an empirically backed research agenda for a nascent field

The increasing intelligence of products and systems, their intra-company cross-linking and their cross-company integration into value creation networks is referred to as Industry 4.0. Academics and practitioners, largely agreeing on the global importance of this proclaimed industrial revolution, have published many contributions on the topic. Research, however, is rather focused on investigating single technologies in quite specific application domains and largely neglects the profound managerial challenges underlying Industry 4.0. Given the recent plea for a more active contribution from the management science community, we strive to establish Industry 4.0 as a challenging but promising field for management research, and aim to assist scholars in engaging with the topic. Therefore, we first gather and analyze extant contributions by means of a systematic literature review and synthesize the information gained into 18 managerial challenges of Industry 4.0 falling into six interrelated clusters: (1) strategy and analysis, (2) planning and implementation, (3) cooperation and networks, (4) business models, (5) human resources and (6) change and leadership. Considering that Industry 4.0 is still an emerging topic and publications may therefore not always be found in highly ranked journals, we aimed to increase the confidence in our findings and triangulated our data by conducting an online survey of industry experts and academics that allows us to qualify the identified challenges in terms of importance and future research need. On this basis, we present an empirically backed research agenda and suggest fruitful avenues for future research in three basic categories: practice-enhancing research, knowledge-enhancing research, and high-impact research