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Einstein Visiting Fellow Prof. Stefan G. Tullius
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Prof. Dr. Stefan G. Tullius, Harvard Medical School, became Einstein BIH Visiting Fellow at the Charité, Department of Surgery. 

Vascular Composite Tissue Allotransplantation (VCA) has developed from a pioneering endevour to a clinical reality during the last 15 years. More than 150 extremity, face, knee, and most recently uterus and penis transplants have been performed during the last 15 years. VCA activities have been seen around the globe. Although feasibility of the procedure has been shown, it is still emerging and far from being a standard clinical procedure. 

The Charité has been an international leader in transplantation research for decades. However, neither VCA basic clinical research programs are currently offered in Berlin or Germany in a meaningful way.The involvement of Prof. Tullius as an Einstein BIH Visiting Fellow is expected to synergize and accelerate efforts igniting both a clinical research transplant program and a basic research group of excellence. The overall objective of our integrated basic and clinical research working group Vascular Composite Tissue Transplantation has three main goals:

To establish a basic Research group of Excellence: VCAs offer unique opportunities to study novel aspects of antigenicity, immune modulation and neo-vascularization. One important aspect that distinguishes VCA from solid organ transplants is their blood supply through a vascularized arterial in- and venous outflow in addition to sprouting new vessels at the large interface of VCA with recipient tissue.

To establish a clinical bio-repository as a pre-requisite for a clinical research VCA program.

To implement a clinical VCA research program (hand, abdominal wall, uterus) as a multi- disciplinary and translational effort.

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Rebeka Major: BIH Promotionsstipendium
Rebeka Major successfully applied for the BIH-Promotionsstipendium grant. Her work will focus in the role of the INDY („I’m Not Dead Yet“) gene in liver regeneration – a project in cooperation with Prof. A. Birkenfeld, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden.
In the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have joined forces. The core idea is to combine translational research with an overarching systems medicine approach to bridge the gap between basic research and clinical application.
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Kristina Kähm - Bachelor of Science
Kristina Kähm successfully completed her bachelor thesis entitled “Analyse von Glykosaminoglykanen und Fibronektinen in der extrazellulären Matrix zum Nachweis der erfolgten Dezellularisierung von Rattenleber-Explantaten“ and is now a Bachelor of science.
Her project was supervised in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Marcus Frohme, Division Molecular Biotechnology and Functional Genomics, Technical University of Applied Sciences in Wildau, Germany.
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Dr. med. Carolin M. Langer
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Today, Carolin Langer successfully defended her thesis entitled Evaluierung eines Silizium-basierten Eisenoxidpartikels als intrazelluläres Magnetresonanzkontrastmittel für die Leberzelltransplantation „magna cum laude“.

Cellular therapies require methods for noninvasive visualization of transplanted cells. Micron-sized iron oxide particles (MPIOs) generate a strong contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and are therefore ideally suited as an intracellular contrast agent to image cells under clinical conditions. However, MPIOs were previously not applicable for clinical use. her thesis focussed on the development and evaluation of silica-based micron-sized iron oxide particles (sMPIOs) with a functionalizable particle surface. Labeling was stable and had no adverse effects on labeled cells. Silica is a biocompatible material that has been approved for clinical use. sMPIOs could therefore be suitable for future clinical applications in cellular MRI, especially in settings that require strong cellular contrast. Moreover, the particle surface provides the opportunity to create multifunctional particles for targeted delivery and diagnostics.

Congratulations !
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Henriette Riedel successfully defended her thesis
Today, Henriette Riedel successfully defended her thesis entitled Etablierung der kombinierten Transplantation syngener Hepatozyten mit allogenem Lebertransplantat im Rattenmodell zur Untersuchung der Toleranzinduktion „magna cum laude“.

Congratulations !
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Dr. Nils Bilecke
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Today, Nils Billecke successfully defended his doctoral thesis magna cum laude. The title of his presentation was „Bioreaktorsystem zur videomikroskopischen Langzeituntersuchung von Zellen in Mono- und Kokultur“.

Congratulations!
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David Mücke successfully defended thesis
Today, David Mücke successfully defended his thesis magna cum laude with respect to his work on the in vitro evaluation of MRI contrast agents for detection of primary human hepatocytes („In vitro Evaluierung von Magnetresonanztomografie-Kontrastmitteln für die Markierung primärer humaner Hepatozyten“).

Congratulations !
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Charité's 300-year anniversary in 2010
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At the Charité, our scientists and physicians engage in state-of-the-art research, patient care and education. More than half of the German Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology come from the Charité, among them Emil von Behring, Robert Koch and Paul Ehrlich. The Charité also has an international reputation for excellence in training. It extends over four campuses with more than 100 clinics and institutes bundled under 17 CharitéCenters. The Charité has a turnover of nearly 1 billion euros per year, and it is one of the largest employers in Berlin with 14,500 employees.
In 2010, the Charité will celebrate its 300-year anniversary and will do everything to make this historical event a memorable one.
Short film covering the Charité - Universitätsmedizin celebrating its 300-year anniversary (47.91 MB)

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Dr. Igor M. Sauer: obtained postdoctoral lecture qualification (Habilitation) in Surgery
February 5th, 2009 at 4 p.m. (Hörsaal 3, Lehrgebäude Charité - Campus Virchow Klinikum) Dr. I.M. Sauer will give his inaugurative lecture entitled "Künstliche Organe: Von der Vision kybernetischer Organismen zur medizinischen Realität".
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PhD Student Award in Regenerative Medicine
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The Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT) offers young talented scientists in Berlin and Brandenburg:
Best Publication Award: The award will be granted for the most outstanding paper for progress in Regenerative Medicine accepted by a peer review journal in the last two years. The award comprises 1.500 Euro.
Best Presentation Award: The award will be granted for the best poster presented at an international conference with a peer review system within the last two years. The award comprises 500 Euro.
Info & Contact: BSRT, Charité Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, E-Mail: award@bsrt.de, Web: www.bsrt.de
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Associated Investigator of BCRT
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The Steering Committee of the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) decided to involve Igor Sauer and his group as an Associated Investigator (AI).
The BCRT is a cooperative research institution of the Charite University Hospital in Berlin and Germany's largest research association, the Helmholtz Association. BCRT also receives generous financial support from the BMBF and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, as well as from the Technology Foundations in Berlin and Brandenburg, the Future Fund Berlin and from various industry partners. More than 15 regional partners from science and industry are active members of the consortium at the BCRT.
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Our manuscript "Depletion of donor dendritic cells ameliorates immunogenicity of both skin and hind limb transplants" has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Immunology, section Alloimmunity and Transplantation. Authors are Muhammad Imtiaz Ashraf, Joerg Mengwasser, Anja Reutzel-Selke, Dietrich Polenz, Kirsten Führer, Steffen Lippert, Peter Tang, Edward Michaelis, Rusan Catar, Johann Pratschke, Christian Witzel, Igor M. Sauer, Stefan G. Tullius, and Barbara Kern.

Acute cellular rejection remains a significant obstacle affecting successful outcomes of organ transplantation including vascularized composite tissue allografts (VCA). Donor antigen presenting cells (APC), particularly dendritic cells (DC), orchestrate early alloimmune responses by activating recipient effector T cells. Employing a targeted approach, we investigated the impact of donor-derived conventional DC (cDC) and APC on the immunogenicity of skin and skin-containing VCA grafts, using mouse models of skin and hind limb transplantation.
By post-transplantation day 6, skin grafts demonstrated severe rejections, characterized by predominance of recipient CD4 T cells. In contrast, hind limb grafts showed moderate rejection, primarily infiltrated by CD8 T cells. While donor depletion of cDC and APC reduced frequencies, maturation, and activation of DC in all analysed tissues of skin transplant recipients, reduction in DC activities was only observed in the spleen of hind limb recipients. Donor cDC and APC depletion did not impact all lymphocyte compartments but significantly affected CD8 T cells and activated CD4 T in lymph nodes of skin recipients. Moreover, both donor APC and cDC depletion attenuated the Th17 immune response, evident by significantly reduced Th17 (CD4+IL-17+) cells in the spleen of skin recipients and reduced levels of IL-17E and lymphotoxin-α in the serum samples of both skin and hind limb recipients. In conclusion, our findings underscore the highly immunogenic nature of skin component in VCA. The depletion of donor APC and cDC mitigates the immunogenicity of skin grafts while exerting minimal impact on VCA.

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