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Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology

Department Chair:	Prof. Heimo Ehmke
Department Vice Chair:	Prof. Christiane K. Bauer
Managing Director:	Dipl.-Kauff. Ute Niendorf

The Department

The main responsibilities of the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology are research and teaching. Our department is part of the Center for Experimental Medicine and cooperates with several departments of the Center, the ZMNH and the University Heart Center.

Research

The physiology of ion channels and transporters are the focus of the department's research activities. Research work ranges from functional and regulatory mechanisms at the atomic and molecular level to the impact of dysfunction of these proteins on the whole organism. Primary areas of interest are studies on voltage-gated potassium and sodium channels as well as simulation and analysis of important pathophysiological relationships including cardiac arrhythmias, insufficiency, atrophy and hypertrophy, the role of kidneys in development of high blood pressure, and epilepsy. The Department of Vegetative Physiology and Pathophysiology is a member of Research Group 604 "Signal Pathways in Healthy and Diseased Hearts" and the Cardiovascular Research Center and is supported by the DFG in other individual projects.

Special Methods and Procedures

• Mutation analysis of channel and transporter proteins as well as regulatory proteins and their transgenic expression in the mouse model
• Tissue sections, freshly dissociated cells and primary culture, membrane envelope preparations of erythrocytes (ghosts), permanent cell lines and Xenopus oocytes
• Expression analysis at the RNA and protein level
• Immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry as well as co-immunoprecipitation
• Electrophysiology (patch clamp, two electrode voltage clamp)
• Ca2+ imaging
• Hormone measurement using the reverse hemolytic plaque assay
• Chronic intravasal catheters in rats and mice
• Metabolic analysis of mice in metabolic cages

Teaching and Continuing Education

The staff of our department teaches 50% of the curriculum in the subject physiology. This includes lectures, seminars, laboratory courses and tutorials for medical and dental students.
In addition, our department is involved in the additional qualification program "Molecular Medicine", the interdisciplinary elective "Alcohol and Nicotine" as well as the elective "Design of the Medical Experiment and Its Transformation".

Facts and Figures

Department Statistics

The department has a staff of ten scientists and seven non-scientists. Six students are doing the research for their doctoral theses in the department and another six are currently writing their doctoral dissertations.