About us
The group for Medical Systems Biology focuses on the development and verification of mathematical models for cellular behavior and cell communication from an initial stimulus to the final phenotype.
In a systems biology approach we combine experimental research on cell-cell communication with the development of appropriate multi-scale dynamic models to investigate the necessary and sufficient control points that lead to cell proliferation, differentiation, migration or death.
We adapt concepts from non-linear dynamics and complex systems to develop appropriate dynamic models unraveling self-organizing properties in cellular behavior. Such behavior in a multicellular environment is most likely the results of time-sequential events, involving protein signaling and gene regulation in feedback-entangled processes lasting several hours.
Systems theory suggests that the slowest evolving variables determine the long term outcome of a system. In a biological context, it is thus the change in gene expression that reflects the macroscopic decision of a cell. Formalizing these ideas in a dynamic modeling approach, we use neural network and rule based modelling approaches to reconstruct the dynamic control logic of cellular decision processes based on gene expression kinetics. Time-resolved experimental data will be recorded in our lab under well defined cell culture and context-dependent conditions. Data is collected on the cell population level using DNA microarrays and RT-PCR as well as on the single cell level by time-lapse microscopy.
News
Montag, 16.09.2019
New paper
A new study on "Short‐term high‐fat diet feeding protects from thedevelopment of experimental allergic asthma in mice” is out now in Clinical & Experimental Allergy. This study was mainly performed by our colleagues from the Institute of Nutritional Medicine (University of Lübeck) and the...
Montag, 13.05.2019
New paper
Together with Misa Hirose from the Ibrahim lab in Lübeck we investigated the role of mtDNA polymorphisms as a modifier of healthspan in mice. The study has been published in IJMS as part of the Special Issue mtDNA and Mitochondrial Stress Signaling in Human Diseases.
In this study, we provide...
Montag, 06.05.2019
New paper
Our study of the cutaneous microbiome in psoriasis got published in the British Journal of Dermatology.The treatment of psoriasis has been revolutionised by the development of biologic therapies. However, the pathogenesis of psoriasis, in particular the role of the cutaneous microbiome, remains...
Mittwoch, 12.12.2018
IL-17A is functionally relevant and a potential therapeutic target in bullous pemphigoid.
IL-17A has been identified as key regulatory molecule in several autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases followed by the successful use of anti-IL-17 therapy, e.g. in ankylosing spondylitis and psoriasis. Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most frequent autoimmune blistering disease with a...
Mittwoch, 12.12.2018
Dietary ursolic acid improves health span and life span in male Drosophila melanogaster.
Primary bile acids are produced in the liver, whereas secondary bile acids, such as lithocholic acid (LCA), are generated by gut bacteria from primary bile acids that escape the ileal absorption. Besides their well-known function as detergents in lipid digestion, bile acids are important...