DZHK

Professor Holger Gerhardt from the DZHK partner site Berlin was newly elected to the Board of Directors by the General Assembly: He will take office on 1 July 2024.

British and German scientists created the most comprehensive cell atlas of the human heart. As reported in the journal “Nature”, it is the first to include the cells from which the heartbeat originates. Among other things, this data will provide a reference for studies on cardiac arrhythmias.

The Max Delbrück Center in Berlin and Heidelberg University will found a new Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC) in Mannheim and Heidelberg. The Helmholtz Senate voted in favor of the institute, which will integrate vascular biomedicine, systems biology and heart research.

A mutation that causes severe hypertension also protects the kidneys from being damaged, reports a team led by Enno Klußmann of the Max Delbrück Center and the DZHK in “Kidney International”. The researchers are now exploring how the effects of the mutated gene can be used therapeutically.

To improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the future, a European partnership is awarding more than five million euros to four international research teams. A project on the consequences of pulmonary hypertension, co-led by Gabriele G. Schiattarella, is also being funded.

They have their sights set on serious diseases: Gabriele G. Schiattarella analyzes mechanisms of heart failure, Simon Haas wants to improve immunotherapies for leukemia and Michael Sigal would like to prevent gastrointestinal diseases. Now, the ERC is awarding the researchers with a Starting Grant.

An overactive enzyme that causes an inherited form of high blood pressure also appears to protect against hypertension-induced cardiac damage. A team of researchers from the Max Delbrück Center, ECRC, and DZHK led by Enno Klußmann explains in the journal Circulation how this could fundamentally change the way hearts can be protected from damage.

Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports in “Science”. MDC researcher Norbert Hübner is one of the senior authors.

Titin is the largest protein in the human body which takes on a central role in muscle fibers. A DZHK team now reports in „Science Translational Medicine“ how mutations in the titin gene can cause a disease of the heart muscle, dilated cardiomyopathy.

Daniela Panáková is studying a signaling pathway that is of critical importance for the heart muscle and congenital heart defects. The German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) has now awarded her a grant of €80,000 to support this research.