Category Archives: News

Lara Althaus (left), a PhD student at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology (IPT) of the Technical University of Munich, presented her investigation project at the 88^th annual conference of the German Cardiac Society (DGK), which took place at the Congress Center Rosengarten Mannheim from 20^th to 23^rd April 2022. Her poster on “The long non-coding RNA Schlafenlnc as a regulator of cardiac resident macrophage function” earned her a nomination for the prestigious DGK Best Poster Prize.
Lara is working in the TRR 267 B06 project under the supervision of PD Dr. Anne Dueck and Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Engelhart.

Jessica Pauli (right), a PhD student at the Clinic and Polyclinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Klinikum rechts der Isar of the Technical University of Munich, presented her doctoral work on “Bulk, single cell and spatial RNA analysis of advanced atherosclerosis” and her poster was nominated for the DGK Best Poster Prize. Jessica is conducting her investigation within the TRR 267 B04 project under the supervision of Prof.  Dr. Lars Mägdefessel.

At the beginning of 2022 the Grote Lab moved from the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration to the Georg-Speyer-Haus. The month of January was all about moving boxes, samples and equipment. However, since February the lab is fully “operational” again and the two SFB-funded PhD students Yi-Hsuan (left) and Sandra (right) are on their projects again to elucidate the mechanisms of lncRNA in the developing heart of the vertebrate embryo. The new year started well and there are already two new mouse models waiting to be analyzed.

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Recently, an article presenting the structure and some research highlights from our SFB project, has been published by the consortium in the journal “Der Kardiologe”.

https://www.springermedizin.de/nicht-kodierende-ribonukleinsaeure-im-kardiovaskulaeren-system/20228714

Recently, we could win two new junior research groups associated to TRR 267 lead by two special young talents, Gabrijela Dumbovic (now Frankfurt) and Daniel Andergassen (now Munich). Both have before completed successful postdoctoral studies at Harvard (USA), investigating fundamental mechanisms of long non-coding RNA function and epigenetic control.

In the context of TRR267, Gabrijela Dumbovic will apply an innovative and interdisciplinary research program to understand the major non-coding transcriptome regulations in cardiovascular health and disease. Special emphasis will be applied towards dissecting the mechanisms and functionality of RNA localization regulation, which is key for RNA function, as well as dissecting the molecular mechanisms of multi-functional lncRNA loci. Her research is expected to have a broad impact on non-coding RNA biology in the cardiovascular system and the therapeutic potential of these findings will be closely pursued.

At the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Daniel Andergassen wants to investigate whether gender differences in heart disease could also be related to epigenetics and specifically to the inactive X chromosome in women. Here, non-coding RNAs play a central role. To do this, one must first realize that in our cells each gene is present twice and usually both the paternal and maternal gene copies are active. This has the advantage that, for example, pathological mutations inherited from the mother or father can be compensated by the other gene copy. The so-called sex chromosomes are an exception. In female cells, which unlike males have two X chromosomes, one of them is completely silenced very early in development by the long non-coding RNA Xist. Andergassen investigated the epigenetic mechanisms behind X-chromosome inactivation at Harvard University. Daniel Andergassen’s junior research group is funded by the DZHK.

On October 18th-20th, 2021, the 9th Cardiac Regeneration and Vascular Biology Conference is taking place in San Servolo, Venice, also as a hybrid event. It is organized under scientific guidance of Prof. Kupatt, TUM in cooperation with the LMU Munich.

Online participation is for free, register here: https://entscheiderfabrik.com/form/code-login-9th-cardiac-regenerat

The conference is approved as certificated training course for physicians by the the Bavarian Medical Board.