Studying tumor-stroma interactions is still an emerging field. Still little is known about the relevance of various sub-populations of tumor cells regarding tumor progression, dissemination, difference in expression of the transporters in the various sub-populations of tumor cells and the influence of the surrounding tissue on the regulation of these transporters.

Anderle is specialized in the genomic analysis of transporters in cancer, colon cancer cell lines and healthy intestine. Working in the group of Wolfgang Sadee at the University of San Francisco, CA, USA and later at the Ohio State University, OH, USA, she has developed in the early 2000th a long-oligo microarray for known and putative channels and transporters. This array has been used in a variety of publications focusing on the role of transporters in cancer.

Anderle then joined as a postdoc the group of Jean-Pierre Kraehenbuhl and Michel Aguet at the Swiss Institute of Cancer Research (ISREC/EPFL) in Lausanne, CH focusing on the combined use of laser-dissection microscopy with microarray technology which resulted in a successful collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and NRC Nestle (e.g. Anderle et al. Gastroenterology 2005, Farmer et al. Nature Medicine 2009 and Deka et al. Cancer Research 2010).

Anderle is since 2006 a member of the editorial board of “Genes and Nutrition”, edited by Springer.

At present, Anderle and her co-workers are interested in understanding the role of transporters in tumor cells as drug carriers and as drug targets. A main focus is trying to understand the regulation of their expression by the microenvironment and their roles in the different tumor cell populations (i.e. bulk tumor cells, EMT cells) combining in silico and in vitro/vivo technologies.