Research Group Fabritz


Name:
Prof. Dr. Larissa Fabritz
Department/Center/Institute: University Heart and Vascular Center, University Center of Cardiovascular Science
Email: l.fabritz@uke.de
Phone: +49 (0) 40 7410 - 57980

Research Focus and Main research questions

Translational Research in Inherited Cardiac Conditions with a Focus on Arrhythmias and Cardiomyopathies.

Research Projects

  • Molecular mechanisms of atrial fibrillation and atrial thrombosis
  • Sodium channel dysfunction and its role in atrial and ventricular arrhythmias
  • Desmosomal proteins
  • Effects of ageing and exercise on arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy
  • Translation of preclinical research into clinical trials
  • Circulating biomolecules to guide diagnosis and therapy of cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias
  • Statistical modelling, big data and machine learning techniques for cardiovascular research
  • Mobile and wearable tools for atrial fibrillation screening, therapy adherence and patient engagement and improvement of personalised prevention and management of care in patients with atrial fibrillation

  • Methods
  • Methods

    Methods:

    • Translation of preclinical research into clinical trials
    • Screening for atrial fibrillation including wearables
    • Development of mobile apps for adherent therapy and patient engagement
    • Identification and characterization of biomarkers for cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia
    • Big data and machine learning techniques for cardiovascular data
    • Experimental echocardiography and ECG
    • Experimental electrophysiology including optical mapping
    • Molecular and cell biology (qPCR, Western Blot, ELISA)
    • Histology, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence microscopy
    • Atrial and ventricular cardiomyocyte isolation
    • Measurement and analysis of intracellular calcium dynamics

  • Publications:

    For the full list of publications, please visit PubMed

    1) Chua W, Law JP, Cardoso VR, Purmah Y, Neculau G, Jawad-Ul-Qamar M, Russell K, Turner A, Tull SP, Nehaj F, Brady P, Kastner P, Ziegler A, Gkoutos GV, Pavlovic D, Ferro CJ, Kirchhof P, Fabritz L. Quantification of fibroblast growth factor 23 and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide to identify patients with atrial fibrillation using a high-throughput platform: A validation study. PLoS Med. 2021 Feb 3;18(2):e1003405. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003405. eCollection 2021 Feb.PMID: 33534825

    2) Obergassel J, O'Reilly M, Sommerfeld LC, Kabir SN, O'Shea C, Syeda F, Eckardt L, Kirchhof P, Fabritz L. Effects of genetic background, sex, and age on murine atrial electrophysiology. Europace. 2021 Jun 7;23(6):958-969. doi: 10.1093/europace/euaa369.PMID: 33462602

    3) Simon JN, Vrellaku B, Monterisi S, Chu SM, Rawlings N, Lomas O, Marchal GA,Waithe D, Syeda F, Gajendragadkar PR, Jayaram R, Sayeed R, Channon KM, Fabritz L, Swietach P, Zaccolo M, Eaton P, Casadei B. Oxidation of Protein Kinase A Regulatory Subunit PKARIα Protects Against Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury by Inhibiting Lysosomal-Triggered Calcium Release. Circulation. 2020 Nov 13. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.046761. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33185461.

    4) Reyat JS, Chua W, Cardoso VR, Witten A, Kastner PM, Kabir SN, Sinner MF, Wesselink R, Holmes AP, Pavlovic D, Stoll M, Kääb S, Gkoutos GV, de Groot JR, Kirchhof P, Fabritz L. Reduced left atrial cardiomyocyte PITX2 and elevated circulating BMP10 predict atrial fibrillation after ablation. JCI insight 2020;5(16):e139179. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.139179.

    5) Rathjens FS, Blenkle A, Iyer LM, Renger A, Syeda F, Noack C, Jungmann A, Dewenter M, Toischer K, El-Armouche A, Müller OJ, Fabritz L, Zimmermann WH, Zelarayan LC, Zafeiriou MP. Preclinical evidence for the therapeutic value of TBX5 normalization in arrhythmia control. Cardiovasc Res. 2020 Aug 10:cvaa239. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvaa239. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32777030

    6) Silbernagel N, Walecki M, Schafer MK-H, Kessler M, Zobeiri M , Rinné S, Kiper AK, Komadowski MA, Vowinkel KS, Wemhoner K, Fortmüller L, Schewe M, Dolga AM, Scekic-Zahirovic J, Matschke LA, Culmsee C, Baukrowitz T, Monassier L, Ullrich ND, Dupuis L, Just S, Budde T, Fabritz L & Decher N. The VAMP-associated protein VAPB is required for cardiac and neuronal pacemaker channel function. accepted 7 May 2018 FASEB journal PMID: 29879376 DOI:10.1096/fj.201800246R 30 Oct 2018 https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.201800246R

    7) Chua W, Easter CL, Guasch E, Sitch A, Casadei B, Crijns HJGM, Haase D, Hatem S, Kääb S, Mont L, Schotten U, Sinner MF, Hemming K, Deeks JJ, Kirchhof P, Fabritz L. Development and external validation of predictive models for prevalent and recurrent atrial fibrillation: a protocol for the analysis of the CATCH ME combined dataset. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2019 May 21;19:120.

    8) Chua W, Purmah Y, Cardoso VR, Gkoutos GV, Tull SP, Neculau G, Thomas MR, Kotecha D, Lip GYH, Kirchhof P, Fabritz L. Data-driven discovery and validation of circulating blood-based biomarkers associated with prevalent atrial fibrillation, European Heart Journal, 2019;40:1268-76.

    Review/Consensus/Editorial

    1) Fabritz L, Crijns HJGM, Guasch E, Goette A, Häusler KG, Kotecha D, Lewalter T, Meyer C, Potpara TS, Rienstra M, Schnabel RB, Willems S, Breithardt G, Camm AJ, Chan A, Chua W, de Melis M, Dimopoulou C, Dobrev D, Easter C, Eckardt L, Haase D, Hatem S, Healey JS, Heijman J, Hohnloser SH, Huebner T, Ilyas BS, Isaacs A, Kutschka I, Leclercq C, Lip GYH, Marinelli EA, Merino JL, Mont L, Nabauer M, Oldgren J, Pürerfellner H, Ravens U, Savelieva I, Sinner MF, Sitch A, Smolnik R, Steffel J, Stein K, Stoll M, Svennberg E, Thomas D, Van Gelder IC, Vardar B, Wakili R, Wieloch M, Zeemering S, Ziegler PD, Heidbuchel H, Hindricks G, Schotten U, Kirchhof P. Dynamic risk assessment to improve quality of care in patients with atrial fibrillation: the 7th AFNET/EHRA Consensus Conference. Europace. 2021 Mar 8;23(3):329-344. doi:10.1093/europace/euaa279.PMID: 33555020

    2) Fabritz L, Patten M, Kirchhof P. Taking the heavy load off arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Heart Rhythm. 2021 Jul;18(7):1192-1193. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2021.04.011. Epub 2021 Apr 18.PMID: 33878457 (editorial)

    3) Hendriks J, Fabritz L. AI can now identify atrial fibrillation through your sinus rhythm. The Lancet 2019 Lancet. 2019 Sep 7;394(10201):812-813. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31719-2. Epub 2019 Aug 1. PMID:31378397 (editorial)

    4) Fabritz L, Guasch E, Antoniades C, Bardinet I, Benninger G, Betts TR, Brand E, Breithardt G, Bucklar-Suchankova G, Camm J, Cartlidge D, Casadei B, Chua WWL, Crijns HJGM, Deeks J, Hatem S, Hidden-Lucet F, Kääb S, Maniadakis N, Martin S, Mont L, Reinecke H, Sinner M, Schotten U, Southwood T, Stoll M, Vardas P, Wakili R, West A, Ziegler A, Kirchhof P. Defining the Major Health Modifiers causing Atrial Fibrillation: A roadmap to underpin personalised prevention and treatment. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 2016 Apr;13(4):230-7.

  • Recent Funding:

    2022-2024 NIHR Award “a pilot study to assess the safety, effectiveness and practical utility of remote patient monitoring to guide the timing of valve intervention in patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis” (APRAISE-AS)
    2021-2026 EU Horizon - MAESTRIA: Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Early Detection Stoke Atrial Fibrillation
    2020-2024 EU Horizon 2020 - Digital, risk-based screening for atrial fibrillation in the european community (AFFECT-EU)
    2020-2021 SMART in OAC
    2019-2024 BHF research Excellence Accelerator
    2019-2022 Project grant BHF, to Brand UCL
    2019-2024 Center for Doctoral Training (CDT) in topological design
    2017-2020 FS/17/7/32651 Brain, Fabritz, Marshall. Non-clinical Studentship. Developing new, fluorescence-based techniques to study sympathetic nerve function within blood vessels and the heart
    2015-2019 European Union Horizon. Characterizing atrial fibrillation by translating its causes into health modifiers in the ealderly (CATCH ME)
    2013-2018 BHF. Understanding the function of Pitx2 in the adult left atrium

Director

Assistance

Foto Gabi Wettengel

Gabi Wettengel

Project Assistance

g.wettengel@uke.de

+49 (0) 40 7410 - 50640

Research

Foto Dr. Vaishnavi Ameya Murukutla

Dr. Vaishnavi Ameya Murukutla

Project Management

v.murukutla@uke.de

+49 (0) 40 7410 - 50313

Hartwig Wieboldt

Hartwig Wieboldt

Research Lab Technician

h.wieboldt@uke.de

+49 (0) 40 7410 - 50959

Christoph Al-Taie

Data Scientist, PhD student

c.al-taie@uke.de

Foto Julius Ridder

Julius Ridder

PhD student

j.ridder@uke.de

Foto Ellen Thiemann

Ellen Thiemann

PhD student

e.thiemann@uke.de

Foto Silke van Elferen

Silke van Elferen

PhD student

S.van-Elferen@uke.de

Dr. Lisa Fortmüller

Veterinarian

l.fortmueller@uke.de

Team Abroad

Dr. Laura Bravo

l.bravo@bham.ac.uk

Dr. Shinwan Kany

s.kany@uke.de

Alumni

Dr. Winnie Chua

Deborah Delbue

Dr. Paulina Sander