News

 

Retreat of the BMGS segment „Cellular and Molecular Biology“ in Hasselt, Belgium

 

gut, liver and friends seminar with Prof. Dr. med. Julia Stingl

talk from Prof. Julia Stingl Copyright: © Dr. Heike Herbrand talk from Prof. Julia Stingl

On 4thof March 2020 Prof. Julia Stingl, the newly recruited director of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, talked about: "The Pharmacological Gut-Liver Interaction: Implications on Personalized Drug Therapy and Dosing". She introduced us in the importance of personalized therapeutics due to an individualized expression of so called “pharmacogenes” which play a big role in drug uptake and metabolization. Beside the patient´s genetics, the microbiota of the patient could have a major impact due to the huge diversity of genes provided by the commensals which can have an important influence on the uptake, bioavailability and processing of drugs.

 

gut, liver and Friends Seminar with Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Janssen

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Janssen and Prof. Dr. Thomas Clavel Copyright: © Dr. Heike Herbrand Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Janssen and Prof. Dr. Thomas Clavel

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Janssen from Munich (TUM, Klinikum Rechts der Isar) was our guest at ‘Gut, Liver and Friends’ on February 19th 2020.

Klaus-Peter Janssen´s laboratory has a major interest in studying tumorigenesis in the colon and the impact of the gut microbiota. He shared brand new data obtained from patients and mouse models on the impact of the microbiota on colorectal cancer and experimental liver resection

Publications:

Holtorf A, Conrad A, Holzmann B, Janssen KP. Cell-type specific MyD88 signaling is required for intestinal tumor initiation and progression to malignancy. Oncoimmunology. 2018;7(8):e1466770. Published 2018 Jun 11. doi:10.1080/2162402X.2018.1466770

Franke FC, Müller J, Abal M, et al. The Tumor Suppressor SASH1 Interacts With the Signal Adaptor CRKL to Inhibit Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer. Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018;7(1):33–53. Published 2018 Sep 11. doi:10.1016/j.jcmgh.2018.08.007

Cremonesi E, Governa V, Garzon JFG, et al. Gut microbiota modulate T cell trafficking into human colorectal cancer. Gut. 2018;67(11):1984–1994. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2016-313498

 

Gut, Liver and Friends Seminar mit Prof. Harry Sokol, Gastroenterology Department Saint Antoine Hospital Paris

Harry Sokol during his talk Copyright: © Dr. Heike Herbrand Harry Sokol during his talk

On 5thof February 2020 Harry Sokol was our guest speaker, talking about ‘Gut Microbiota in IBD: from description to therapeutic target’. Harry Sokol works at the Gastroenterology Department of Saint Antoine Hospital in Paris. His lab aims at deciphering the mechanisms involved in the crosstalk of host and microbiota crosstalk in health and disease. Harry Sokol shared recent published and unpublished data on prospect of Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

We have started ‘Gut and Friends’ lunch time seminars more than five years ago with a small audience in a correspondingly small room. With today's lecture by Mr. Sokol, we took the opportunity to move our seminar series to a larger auditorium.

Publications:

Sokol, H., Landman, C., Seksik, P. et al. Fecal microbiota transplantation to maintain remission in Crohn’s disease: a pilot randomized controlled study. Microbiome 8, 12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-020-0792-5

Lavelle A, Hoffmann TW, Pham HP, Langella P, Guédon E, Sokol H. Baseline microbiota composition modulates antibiotic-mediated effects on the gut microbiota and host. Microbiome. 2019 Aug 2;7(1):111. doi: 10.1186/s40168-019-0725-3.

 

Gut & Friends Seminar with Prof. Emma Wetter Slack, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zürich

talk Prof. Emma Wetter-Slack Copyright: © Dr. Heike Herbrand

On November 20th , 2019, our seminar guest Emma Wetter Slack shared her view on gut IgA biology with the audience. She gave a highly informative talk entitled "Interactions between gut bacteria and the mucosal immune system". She presented her group’s newest data on the interactions of IgA and intestinal bacteria and showed preliminary data addressing the role of mucosal T cells in microbiota regulation. Emma Wetter Slack is an expert in the field of IgA biology and her work has profoundly altered our understanding of the mechanisms of immune exclusion of pathogenic bacteria by secretory IgA. Her talk was followed by a ‘Meet the Speaker’ session specifically aimed at young scientists to encourage discussion and scientific exchange.

References:

Moor, Kathrin, Diard, Médéric, Sellin, Mikael E., Felmy, Boas, Wotzka, Sandra Y., Toska, Albulena, Bakkeren, Erik, Arnoldini, Markus, Bansept, Florence, Co, Alma Dal, Völler, Tom, Minola, Andrea, Fernandez-Rodriguez, Blanca, Agatic, Gloria, Barbieri, Sonia, Piccoli, Luca, Casiraghi, Costanza, Corti, Davide, Lanzavecchia, Antonio, Regoes, Roland R., Loverdo, Claude, Stocker, Roman, Brumley, Douglas R., Hardt, Wolf-Dietrich and Slack, Emma (2017). "High-avidity IgA protects the intestine by enchaining growing bacteria." Nature 544(7651): 498-502.

Enchained growth and cluster dislocation: A possible mechanism for microbiota homeostasis. Florence Bansept, Kathrin Schumann-Moor, Médéric Diard, Wolf-Dietrich Hardt, Emma Slack and Claude Loverdo. PLoS Computational Biology, vol. 15: no. 5, pp. e1006986, San Francisco, CA: Public Library of Science, 2019.

Salmonella persisters promote the spread of antibiotic resistance plasmids in the gut. Erik Bakkeren, Jana S. Huisman, Stefan A. Fattinger, Annika Hausmann, Markus Furter, Adrian Egli, Emma Wetter Slack, Mikael E. Sellin, Sebastian Bonhoeffer, Roland Robert Regös, Médéric Diard and Wolf-Dietrich Hardt. Nature, vol. 573: no. 7773, pp. 276-280, London: Nature Publishing Group, 2019.

IgA and the intestinal microbiota: the importance of being specific. Oliver Pabst and Emma Slack E . Mucosal Immunol. 2019 Nov 18. doi: 10.1038/s41385-019-0227-4 [Epub ahead of print].

 

The trithorax protein Ash2l is essential for maintaining adult hematopoiesis

The expression of genes is controlled at various levels, including the modification of core histones. Methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 is associated with open chromatin and gene transcription. This histone modification is dependent on KMT2 methyltransferase complexes, which require several core proteins, including Ash2l, for efficient catalytic activity. We have generated conditional Ash2l alleles, which were inactivated in the hematopoietic system of the adult mouse. This resulted in the loss of differentiated hematopoietic cells due to a proliferation and differentiation stop of stem and progenitor cells. Mechanistically this is paralleled by a loss of methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 and downregulation of hundreds of genes. Thus, Ash2l is required for maintaining the proper development of mature hematopoietic cells and therefore essential for organismal survival.

Reference:

Lüscher-Firzlaff J, Chatain N, Kuo CC, Braunschweig T, Bochyńska A, Ullius A, Denecke B, Costa IG, Koschmieder S, Lüscher B. 2019. Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation requires the trithorax protein Ash2l. Scientific Reports 9, 8262.

 

Gut & Friends Seminar with Professor Gérard Eberl, Institute Pasteur, Paris

Gérard Eberl during his gut&friends talk Gérard Eberl during his gut&friends talk

Gérard Eberl gave a talk to the topic " Regulation of immunity by neonatal microbiotra".

 

Gut & Friends Seminar with Professor Jochen Hühn, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig

Professor Hornef and Professor Hühn Copyright: © Heike Herbrand

Gut & Friends Seminar with Prof. Jochen Hühn, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig

On September 4th , 2019, our seminar guest Jochen Hühn has provided fascinating insights into ‘How neonatal infections and microbial colonization affect T cell differentiation’. Jochen Hühn is an expert in the field of T regulatory cells and has been analyzing the influence of tissue conditions for T cell priming for many years. His talk was followed by a ‘Meet the Speaker’ Session specifically aimed at young scientists to encourage discussion and scientific exchange.

References:

Pezoldt J, Pasztoi M, Zou M, Wiechers C, Beckstette M, Thierry GR, Vafadarnejad E, Floess S, Arampatzi P, Buettner M, Schweer J, Fleissner D, Vital M, Pieper DH, Basic M, Dersch P, Strowig T, Hornef M, Bleich A, Bode U, Pabst O, Bajénoff M, Saliba AE, Huehn J. Neonatally imprinted stromal cell subsets induce tolerogenic dendritic cells in mesenteric lymph nodes. Nat Commun. 2018 Sep 25;9(1):3903.

Pasztoi M, Pezoldt J, Beckstette M, Lipps C, Wirth D, Rohde M, Paloczi K, Buzas EI, Huehn J. Mesenteric lymph node stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles contribute to peripheral de novo induction of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells. Eur J Immunol. 2017 Dec;47(12):2142-2152.

 

student discussion with Professor Hühn

student discussion Copyright: © Heike Herbrand student discussion with Prof. Hühn
 

students during the talk

students during the talk Copyright: © Heike Herbrand students during the talk
 

Publication: The trithorax protein Ash2l is essential for maintaining adult hematopoiesis

The trithorax protein Ash2l is essential for maintaining adult hematopoiesis

The expression of genes is controlled at various levels, including the modification of core histones. Methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 is associated with open chromatin and gene transcription. This histone modification is dependent on KMT2 methyltransferase complexes, which require several core proteins, including Ash2l, for efficient catalytic activity. We have generated conditional Ash2l alleles, which were inactivated in the hematopoietic system of the adult mouse. This resulted in the loss of differentiated hematopoietic cells due to a proliferation and differentiation stop of stem and progenitor cells. Mechanistically this is paralleled by a loss of methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 and downregulation of hundreds of genes. Thus, Ash2l is required for maintaining the proper development of mature hematopoietic cells and therefore essential for organismal survival.

Reference

Lüscher-Firzlaff J, Chatain N, Kuo CC, Braunschweig T, Bochyńska A, Ullius A, Denecke B, Costa IG, Koschmieder S, Lüscher B. 2019. Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation requires the trithorax protein Ash2l. Scientific Reports 9, 8262.

  persons on the retreat in Hasselt, Belgium

February 14 and 15th, 2019:
The second retreat of the BMGS segment „Cellular and Molecular Biology“ in Hasselt, Belgium

Annika Schwentker (AG Hornef) and Theresa Streidl (AG Clavel) from the Institute of Medical Microbiology of the RWTH Aachen University Hospital organized together the second retreat of the BMGS segment „Cellular and Molecular Biology“ at the Youth Hostel in Hasslet, Belgium.

In addition to interesting scientific presentations during the two days by external and internal speakers like John Penders (University of Maastricht), Albert Haas (University of Bonn) and Ivan Gesteira Costa (University Hospital RWTH Aachen) on topics like the enteric microbiome and multiresistant bacterial members following travelling, cellular mechanisms of cell trafficking and bioinformatic approaches of single cell transcriptome analysis we discussed the PhD projects among the students and together with the PIs.

Moreover, workshops on topics such as “How to present professionally”, “Time management & self organisation” and “Tips and Tricks for Citing and Citation Managers” as well as information about the formal requirements for the registration as PhD student and the activities and courses offered by the graduate school, medical faculty and university were provided.

During a get together in the evening, we could continue our scientific discussions and deepen the contacts between students of the participating groups. Also, the PIs could present discuss future activities and initiatives of our graduate school.

For further information please refer to:

Uniklinik RWTH Aachen

Dr. Mathias Brandstädter
Tel. +49 241 80-89893

 

02.12.2017: First retreat of the BMGS Segment Cellular and Molecular Biology

Prof. Joachim Jankowski together with Marieke Sternkopf and Sandra Knarren from the IMCAR at the RWTH University Clinic organized the first very successful retreat of the BMGS Segment Molecular and Cellular Biology at Kloster Heidberg in Eupen, Belgium.

We discussed our new graduate school, planned activities and listened to science talks on the ADAM family proteases (Prof. Ludwig), ADP ribosylation (Prof. Lüscher), enteric host-microbial interaction (Prof. Hornef), stem cells (Prof. Zenke) and plasma proteomics (Prof. Jankowski).

We additionally had interesting presentations on funding agencies and stipends, grant writing, research in industry and academia, career development and topics related to the work as a PhD student. Finally we listened to a beautiful organ music play, visited the Abbey Val-Dieu and spent time together with a Yahtzee tournament during the evening.

For further information please refer to:

Uniklinik RWTH Aachen

Dr. Mathias Brandstädter
Tel. +49 241 80-89893

 

11.09.2017: Kick-off meeting of the Biomedical Graduate School (BMGS) Aachen

The module "Cellular and Molecular Biology" of the Biomedical Graduate School (BMGS) met on September 11th at the University Hospital for the first kick-off meeting. The PhD students presented their projects in a Science Slam competition. Prof. Wolfram Antonin, newly appointed Director of the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology introduced his research in a keynote lecture.

Für Presserückfragen wenden Sie sich bitte an:

Uniklinik RWTH Aachen
Stabsstelle Unternehmenskommunikation
Dr. Mathias Brandstädter
Tel. 0241 80-89893