Category Archives: News

We are proud of our PI Lars Maegdefessel, professor of vascular biology at TUM, who just won a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for his project “Targeting long non-coding RNAs for novel treatment strategies in vascular diseases” (LongTx). In 2015, he already received an ERC Starting Grant. 

The grants are awarded annually in several categories. Consolidator Grants are provided to researchers with between seven and 12 years’ experience since completion of a doctorate. The selected projects will receive up to 2 million euros in funding.

In his project LongTx, Prof. Lars Maegdefessel will investigate how lncRNAs can be used to develop better treatments for vascular diseases. He is particularly interested in atherosclerosis in vessels supplying the brain – one of the main causes of strokes. Using a combination of different methods, Maegdefessel and his team have already identified several lncRNAs that play a role in the development of vascular diseases. Now they want to investigate their function and therapeutic potential in preclinical test series in order to develop them further for future treatment strategies.

Congratulations to Frederike Boos, a PhD student from Goethe University Frankfurt for receiving the RNA Society Poster Award at RNA 2022, 27th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society, in Boulder (Colorado). She was presenting her research within the SFB project A04 under the supervision of Prof. Ralf P. Brandes at the Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology.

We are proud that Stefanie Dimmeler and Thomas Thum from TRR 267 have been selected by The European Research Council (ERC) to receive two of their prestigious ERC Advanced Grants. Congratulations!

Neuroheart (Stefanie Dimmeler): As aging is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, knowledge about mechanisms underlying age-related changes is still scarce. In this project the unique interaction of nerves and vessels in the aging heart will be studied, which likely contributes to the development of age-related diseases of the heart muscle. The long-term goal is to lay the foundation for the development of therapies that contribute to healthy aging of the heart. Stefanie Dimmeler receives the grant already for the third time.

REVERSE (Thomas Thum): Heart failure is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. In Germany, around four million people suffer from cardiac insufficiency. Besides others, remodeling processes in the heart muscle lead to this disease. These processes, inter alia, can be triggered by side effects of chemotherapy. So far, there is no treatment option that can stop or even reverse the course of the disease. Professor Dr. Dr. Thomas Thum and his team are now looking for such a strategy within the research project REVERSE.

Please find more information about this important topic in the entire article: https://www.mhh.de/en/presse/mhh-insight/startseite-news-detailed-view/mhh-researcher-wants-to-stop-harmful-effect-of-chemotherapy-on-heart-muscle

On May 5th, our SFB/TRR267 participated in the Joint Meeting of German SFBs focusing on kidney, heart and vessels in Seeheim. Presentations from each SFB as well as a poster session provided a great opportunity for networking and exchange of expertise with other projects.

The meeting was organized by SFB/TRR219 (Aachen-Homburg) under the patronage of the DFG. 

Sarah Cushman, a PhD student at the Institute of Molecular and Translational Therapeutic Strategies (IMTTS) at Hannover Medical School, was awarded the prestigious poster prize from the German Cardiac Society (DGK) at the society’s annual conference in Mannheim for her poster entitled “Insights into the role of circular RNA, circREGEN, in cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac regeneration”, which was selected out of hundreds of posters. This poster delves into the role by which circREGEN influences the regenerative potential of the heart, as well as the protective effect it offers against stress inducing factors.

Sarah is working in the SFB B01 project under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Thum and PD Dr. Christian Bär.