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Jeanette Erdmann is a new member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina unites researchers with special expertise in their respective fields. The criterion for admission is outstanding scientific achievement.

Among scientists, admission to the ranks of Leopoldina members is considered one of the highest honours – Prof. Jeanette Erdmann has received it. The biologist is the only professor at the University of Lübeck who is currently a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Her path into the world of research led Jeanette Erdmann to the Institute of Human Genetics in Bonn after completing her studies at the University of Cologne, where she wrote her doctoral thesis. After her doctorate, she worked as a research group leader in Berlin and Regensburg. Jeanette Erdmann completed her habilitation at the University of Regensburg. She has worked at the University of Lübeck since 2003.

In 2012 she was appointed W3 Professor for Life in Lübeck and subsequently DZHK Professor by the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research. Since 2013, she has successfully led the newly founded Institute of Cardiogenetics, which aims to better understand the genetic factors that lead to cardiovascular diseases, e.g. atherosclerosis and heart attacks, in order to develop new therapies. “Since the beginning of my PhD, I have been working on the inheritance of common, so-called complex diseases, first with schizophrenia and depression and for 15 years now with cardiovascular diseases. For a few years now, however, I have expanded my field of research and we are currently also developing a therapy for a rare neuromuscular disease that I diagnosed myself with a few years ago,” reports Prof. Jeanette Erdmann.

With her expertise, the director of the Institute of Cardiogenetics at the University of Lübeck now strengthens the Leopoldina, which is a classic learned society with its approximately 1,600 members from almost all scientific fields. The proportion of female scientists among its members has risen from seven to 15 per cent in the past ten years. “Being accepted into the Leopoldina is a success and a great honour for me in two ways,” explains Prof. Erdmann. “On the one hand, I am pleased that my scientific work has been recognised by the Academy. Here I would like to thank my staff in particular, as well as the national and international cooperation partners of the past 15 years, without whom this success would not have been possible. On the other hand, admission to the Leopoldina rewards the efforts of the past years and perhaps strengthens more young women and people with physical limitations to embark on the fulfilling, but sometimes also rocky path of an academic career. I would be extremely pleased about that.”

The Academy’s tasks include representing German science abroad and advising politicians and the public. The Leopoldina unites researchers with special expertise in their respective fields. The approximately 1,600 Academy members come from over 30 countries. Every year, about 50 scientists are elected to the Academy for life in a multi-stage selection process. Admission follows a nomination by Academy members, which is followed by a multi-stage selection process by the Section, the Class and the Presidium.

Since the Academy was founded in 1652, more than 7,000 personalities have been admitted to its ranks. These have included Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Justus von Liebig and Max Planck.

Jeanette Erdmann is a new member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Read More »

A new MD in town

On April 21, 2021 Karim Tarhbalouti has very successfully defended his MD thesis “Expression of Human CAD-Associated Risk
Genes in Blood of Hypercholesterolemic Zebrafish (Danio rerio)”.
It was a wonderful talk and an impressive Q&A session. Congratulations!

A new MD in town Read More »

Viviana Vedder was appointed to the Environmental Sustainability Committee of the IZFS

Viviana Vedder MSc a Phd student at the ICG was appointed to join the Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC)  of the International Zebrafish Society (IZFS). The ESC provides strategic recommendations to the IZFS leadership regarding initiatives that can maximize the benefits of international scientific interactions and activities whilst minimizing environmental impact.

More information can be found here.

 

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Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jeanette Erdmann appointed as member of the Permanent Senate Commission of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has appointed Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jeanette Erdmann as a member of the Permanent Senate Commission on Basic Questions in Genetic Research.

Jeanette Erdmann studied biology in Cologne and completed her doctoral thesis at the Institute of Human Genetics in Bonn. After her doctorate, she worked as a research group leader in Berlin and Regensburg. She completed her habilitation at the University of Regensburg. Since 2003, she has been working at the University of Lübeck. In 2012, she was appointed DZHK professor for life. Since 2013, she has successfully led the newly founded Institute of Cardiogenetics, which aims to better understand the genetic factors that lead to cardiovascular diseases, e.g., atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction.

The Permanent Senate Commission on Genetic Research advises the DFG’s Executive Committee and Senate, but also – in accordance with the DFG’s statutory mandate – parliaments and authorities on issues relating to genetic research, genetic engineering and their effects. The Permanent Senate Commission on Genetic Research thus deals with areas in which research policy tasks exist, where there are deficits in the discussion and where developments in genetic research are apparent that raise scientific, ethical, legal and social questions.

The Commission consists of scientists from various German universities. The Commission was founded in 1994 and has issued statements on predictive genetic diagnostics and recommendations on human stem cell research, among other things.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jeanette Erdmann appointed as member of the Permanent Senate Commission of the German Research Foundation (DFG) Read More »

Premiere

Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine advertises manuscripts via social media. Among other things also through explainer videos.

Today the first video from Lübeck was released. Please have a look!

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PRS goes Youtube

In collaboration with Inke König and Damian Gola from our University and colleagues from Munich and Tartu we examined how polygenic risk scores (PRS) trained in population-specific but European data sets perform in other European sub-populations in distinguishing between coronary artery disease patients and healthy individuals. 

We found that PRS have the highest performance in their corresponding population testing data sets, whereas their performance significantly drops if applied to testing data sets from different European populations. 

This result has direct impact on the clinical usability of PRS for risk prediction: a population effect must be kept in mind when applying risk estimation models which are based on additional genetic information even for individuals from different European populations of the same ethnicity.

Please have a look at the explainer video from Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine: link to video.

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ICG coordinates PROGRESS, an international consortium funded by ERAPerMed

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major burden for patients and health care systems worldwide. The most common cause of CAD is atherosclerosis, an inflammatory disease gradually obstructing arteries, with life-threatening effects in the coronary circulation. Often, the circulation adapts through collateral artery formation, leading to significantly improved long-term post-ischemic outcome. Hence, timely determination of the collateral profile presents a pivotal factor in the Personalized Medicine of CAD. However, the coronary collateral circulation (CCC) development is not well predicted by traditional CAD risk factors. Moreover, manifold inconsistencies are still apparent in CCC research, mainly associated with the difficulty of quantifying CCC accurately and reproducibly.

The overarching objective of PROGRESS is to develop a tool for more accurate, reproducible and automated prediction of patients’ potential to develop CCC, which could be used for a more efficient CAD patient management.

Our hypothesis is that patients’ potential to develop CCC is, in part, determined by genetics. Thus, uncovering the genetic risk variants holds the potential of predicting CCC formation. To overcome previous difficulties of CCC research, we harness Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based angiogram image and genetics analyses aiming to improve risk stratification and management of CAD patients, based on their CCC formation profile, followed by timely application of therapeutic approaches in order to stimulate CCC formation and thus improve survival rates of patients after diagnosis. We have collected well-powered CAD cohorts with genetic and imaging data. AI-based image analysis will aid in phenotyping CCC and also to generate post-hoc surrogate functional parameters (validated against a cohort of invasively phenotyped patients) in an unbiased fashion. This provides the basis for a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on CCC performed in large detection and validation cohorts.

ICG coordinates PROGRESS, an international consortium funded by ERAPerMed Read More »

Of mice and men and zebrafishes. A promised land of discoveries for hypertension researchers.

An editorial commentary on our article titled “Studies in zebrafish demonstrate that CNNM2 and NT5C2 are most likely the causal genes at the blood pressure-associated locus on human chromosome 10q24.32” has been reviewed and accepted for publication in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.

The title of this Editorial is “Of mice and men and zebrafishes. A promised land of discoveries for hypertension researchers” and states that, zebrafishes are going to be the tale for hypertension research in the immediate future. 

We are grateful to the authors (Daniela Sorriento and Guido Iaccarino) for their very positive evaluation of our article.

The Editorial can be found here.

Of mice and men and zebrafishes. A promised land of discoveries for hypertension researchers. Read More »

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