‚Tumor and inflammation’ is a new interdisciplinary priority research program at the Philipps university Marburg funded by the LOEWE Excellence program of the German state government of Hesse. A great concern of the LOEWE Excellence Initiative is to deepen cooperation of the internationally renowned local research groups working in the fields of molecular tumor biology, immunology and inflammation from clinical departments and institutes of the Faculties of Medicine and Biology from the universities of Marburg and Giessen. The close cooperation between disciplines and institutions will also bring forward tumor research and will further boost the scientific reputation. A central aspect of the research program is to understand the mutual interactions of tumor-, inflammatory- and stroma cells and their significance for tumor development and tumorgenesis with a focus on transcriptional signalling and on epigenetically modulated regulation mechanisms.