Experimental Genomics
The Experimental Genomics research groups focus on molecular genetics of coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary artery calcification (CAC), as well as cardiomyopathy.
The functional role of risk genes and the underlying mechanisms leading to disease is very often unclear. To go beyond GWAS studies we aim to functionally understand the role of some of these CAD/MI risk genes and their related diseases such as atherosclerosis, calcification, blood pressure, inflammation and intima-media thickness.
For this we have established a resource of knockout (KO) mice models, a platform for studying atherosclerosis and angiogenesis in zebrafish and cell-based assays. Recently, we have expanded our portfolio to iPS cell derived vascular smooth muscle cells.
Since 2018 we further extended our research interest and started to work on Collagen VI-CMD, a rare neuromuscular disease with no cure.