AG Weinberger


Name:
MD Florian Weinberger
Clinic/Institute: Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology
Email: f.weinberger@uke.de
Phone: +49 (0) 40 7410 - 53180

Research Focus and Main research questions

The regenerative capacity of the heart is limited. After a brief postnatal period during which the heart is able to (partially) regenerate, cardiac injury leads to the formation of scar tissue and often results in heart failure. Even though modern pharmacotherapy has increased life expectancy significantly for heart failure patients it does not address the underlying problem, the loss of cardiomyocytes. Our research aims to develop regenerative pharmacological strategies. It mainly focuses on translational studies to apply pluripotent stem cell-based strategies for cardiac regeneration but also uses stem cell-based cardiac tissue engineering to model human cardiac injury and regeneration in a dish to identify new targets for cardiac repair.

  • Methods
  • Methods

    Methods:

    • Preclinical in vivo models
    • Stem cell culture
    • Cardiac tissue engineering
    • Opto-/Chemogenetics Assessment of cardiac physiology in vivo and in vitro
    • Histology

  • Publications:

    Weinberger F*, Breckwoldt K*, Pecha S*, Kelly A, Geertz B, Starbatty J, Yorgan T, Cheng KH, Lessmann K, Stolen T, Scherrer-Crosbie M., Smith G, Reichenspurner H, Hansen A, Eschenhagen T. (2016) Cardiac repair in guinea pigs with human engineered heart tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells. Science Translational Medicine

    Neidig LE*, Weinberger F*, Palpant NJ, Mignone J, Martinson AM, Sorensen DW, Bender I, Nemoto N, Reinecke H, Pabon L, Molkentin JD, Murry CE, van Berlo JH. (2018) Evidence for Minimal Cardiogenic Potential of Stem Cell Antigen 1-Positive Cells in the Adult Mouse Heart. Circulation

    Pecha S, Yorgan K, Röhl M, Geertz B, Hansen A, Weinberger F, Sehner S, Ehmke H, Reichenspurner H, Eschenhagen T, Schwoerer AP. Human iPS cell-derived engineered heart tissue does not affect ventricular arrhythmias in a guinea pig cryo-injury model. (2019) Scientific Reports

    Bargehr J, Ong LP, Colzani M, Davaapil H, Hofsteen P, Bhandari S, Gambardella L, Le Novère N, Iyer D, Sampaziotis F, Weinberger F, Bertero A, Leonard A, Bernard WG, Martinson A, Figg N, Regnier M, Bennett MR, Murry CE, Sinha S. (2019) Epicardial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells augment cardiomyocyte-driven heart regeneration. Nature Biotechnology

    E. Querdel, M. Reinsch, L. Castro, D. Köse, S. Reich, B. Geertz, B. Ulmer, M. Schulze, M. D. Lemoine, T. Krause, M. Lemme, J. Sani, A. Shibamiya, T. Stüdemann, M. Köhne, S. Pecha, Y. Nejahsie, I. Mannhardt, T. Christ, A. Hansen, T. Eschenhagen*, F. Weinberger*. (2021) Engineered heart tissue transplantation remuscularizes the heart in a dose-dependent manner. Circulation

  • Recent Funding:

    2018-2021: DFG-Sachbeihilfe

    2021-2025: OrganVision Horizon 2020