News

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ColVI-CMD research at the ICG will be funded by CureCMD

The ICG is happy to announce, that Jeanette Erdmann and Franziska Haarich are amongst the recipients of Cure CMD´s 2020 Grant Awards. According to the CureCMD press release “Grants have been awarded in five subtypes: Dystroglycanopathy, Collagen VI, LAMA2, LMNA, and SELENON (SEPN1). The projects range from a study in mouse models, to new projects in gene therapy, to an extended grant focused on genetic modifiers.”

“The process was extremely competitive this year,” says Cure CMD’s Scientific Director, Dr. Gustavo Dziewczapolski. “In previous cycles we have had perhaps a dozen applicants. This year, we received a record-breaking 30 applications, which is thrilling because it indicates an expanded interest in CMD research — something we at Cure CMD have continued to cultivate over the last decade.”

The study by J. Erdmann and F. Haarich entitled: First steps towards an RNA-based therapy for COL6-MD using CRISPR interference will evaluate the unique characteristics of the gene copy (allele) carrying some of the more common Collagen VI dominant mutations, in order to target and inhibit the mutant allele and spare the unaffected allele. The team will evaluate a novel treatment strategy, called CRISPR interference (CRISPRi), to achieve suppression of the faulty gene. CRISPRi is a type of CRISPR technology, which may be safer by acting on RNA rather than directly on DNA.

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New Address for the ICG

Since 3 August 2020, the ICG has been working in Building 67 (BMF) on the first floor. The new postal address is:

Building 67, BMF
Ratzeburger Allee 160
23562 Lübeck

You can find our administrative office in room number: 067.000.10.042.00.

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Masterpreis Molekularbiologie für Marlon Märtens

The junior group of the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (jGBM) and Life Science Lübeck e.V. awarded the best master thesis and presentation of the study programs Molecular Life Science and Infection Biology to Marlon Märtens from the Institute for Cardiogenetics. Congratulations!
More information can be found here.
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gnomAD papers are online

We, at the ICG, are honored to be part of the collection of research articles and related content from the gnomAD Consortium describing and analysing human genetic variation.
Although our input was only marginal we and all the other more than 100 PI made it possible to collectively analyse such a large number of exomes and genomes.
Thank you very much to the team, who originally started this project years ago. Your impact on human genetics is almost priceless.
The collection of papers is publicly available here: https://www.nature.com/collections/afbgiddede
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Virtual Retreat of the ICG

On May 26/27 2020 we will have our annual retreat, this time virtually by using zoom.

Due to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic we are not allowed to travel nor to meet with a larger group of people. This is why we decided to organize our annual retreat as a virtual event. This will be a very special experience, we will see how it will turn out in the end. However, we are all looking forward to the retreat in 2021, hopefully outside of Lübeck.

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Reopening of the Institute

After approval of our hygiene concept, we will be able to slowly start up our laboratory operations from 4 May onwards under strict consideration of hygiene measures.
The most important measure is that we had to form two independent teams, which are not allowed to meet personally in the coming weeks. We have decided that team A will now work in the laboratory from Monday – Wednesday and team B from Thursday – Saturday. All in all, the distance rules must be observed.
After almost 6 weeks of “physical distancing” these are the first steps into a life with SARS-Cov-2 and laboratory work on a hopefully soon normal level.
I am very thankful to all staff members that we got through the weeks together, virtual meetings have contributed a lot and will accompany us over the next weeks or months.
At the moment we just have to get used to the new conditions and be patient.

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Show Your Mask

From April 29, 2020 it will be mandatory to wear a mouth and nose protector in our federal state Schleswig-Holstein to prevent further spread of SARS-Cov-2.

We, as employees of the ICG have pointed out already days ago that these masks are useful, not as self-protection, more in the sense of “All for one, one for all”.

 

We are so thankful to Viviana who provided us with these beautiful self-made masks.

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Shutdown of the Institute due to Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

Since March 16th, 2020 the Institute for Cardiogenetics is basically in shutdown modus.

We follow the advise of our President and our Chancellor of the University and maintain only a minimum of experimental research activity. However, all members of the ICG are currently working in homeoffice and you can reach us by mail and phone.

Please stay safe and sound!

#StayAtHome #StaySafeAtHome #COVID19 #SocialDistancing

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