GRK 2824:  Heart and brain diseases: integrative research across organs

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: since 2023
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 465640801

Clinical research and student training are usually organized around organ-centered disciplines. We suggest that this approach is not optimal to meet the future challenges of our health care systems. One example for this can be seen in the area of disorders of the heart and the brain, which represent the leading causes of disability and death worldwide. Function or dysfunction of both the heart and the brain are dependent on electrically excitable post-mitotic cardiomyocytes and neurons that share common functional properties and similar patho-mechanisms. However, obvious synergies between the corresponding research fields in heart and brain are rarely explored. Furthermore, comorbidities suggest major interdependencies between heart and brain diseases. Prime examples are the “broken heart syndrome” in which emotional stress can lead to cardiac dysfunction and even death, or heart failure patients who develop cognitive impairments and thus suffer an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Due to the local expertise in neurosciences and cardiovascular research at the Göttingen Campus and the growing number of interdisciplinary research projects, our consortium plans to overcome the current organ-centered approaches towards heart and brain diseases and provide corresponding graduate training to medical doctors and natural scientists. In 10 projects that range from basic science to translational human studies, we propose to study common physiological and pathological processes in the heart and the brain as well as the interdependencies of heart and brain diseases. Finally, our research training group will help foster interdisciplinary education of clinical and medical scientists and aim at developing novel diagnosis and therapy concepts beyond organ-centered disciplines.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Dörthe M. Katschinski
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Christine A.F. von Arnim; Professorin Dr. Susann Boretius; Professor Dr. Tobias Brügmann; Professor Dr. Matthias Bähr; Privatdozentin Dr. Antje Dagmar Ebert; Professor Dr. André Fischer; Professor Dr. Stephan E. Lehnart; Dr. Christof Lenz; Professor Silvio-Olivier Rizzoli, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Caspar M. Schwiedrzik; Professorin Dr. Katrin Streckfuß-Bömeke; Professor Dr. Karl Toischer; Professorin Dr. Melanie Wilke; Professor Dr. Oliver Wirths; Maria Patapia Zafeiriou, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Elisabeth Zeisberg; Professor Dr. Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann