The Institute for Cardiogenetics has its origins in a research group of Molecular Cardiovascular Genetics headed by Prof. Heribert Schunkert and Prof. Jeanette Erdmann at the Medical Clinic II at the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein in 2004. As a result of many years of successfully working together in Lübeck we have a particularly close collaboration with the research group of Professor Heribert Schunkert, director of the Deutsches Herzzentrum München.
Team members apply in-silico as well as in-vitro and in-vivo methods to further unravel the genetics of cardiovascular diseases.
The Institute for Cardiogenetics is engaged in large networks of national and international collaborations (like CARDIoGRAM, CARDIoGRAMplusC4D, and GIANT) and actively participates in data and sample exchange.
We are funded by national (BMBF, DFG) and international (EU, Leducq) agencies as well as local fundings (University of Lübeck). Furthermore, we are part of the partnersite Hamburg, Kiel, Lübeck within the DZHK e.V. (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research) and the Excellence Cluster „Inflammation at Interfaces“.
There is an urgent need to progress beyond current state-of-the-art genetics by adding further levels of -omics data and approaches that include markers of regulatory function.
By integrating bioinformatical, epidemiological, clinical and experimental data, we propose to elucidate the functional basis of already-known genetic loci, as well as identify novel pathways to further understand the pathomechanisms leading to these life-threatening diseases.
To fulfill these overarching goals the Institute hosts an interdisciplinary as well as international research team of 25 scientists, PhD and MD students and technicians.