News
LOCOTACT Lectures – Alexandra Dumitrescu
The LOCOTACT Lecture in August 2023 was held by Prof. Dumitrescu from the University of Chicago.
Under the title “The control of thyroid hormone levels by the deiodinases - lessons from genetic defects in humans and mice”, she explained the role of the deiodinases and their mutations in thyroid hormone metabolism at different stages of development and how it relates to the lesser known deiodinase related genetic defects in humans.
We thank Alexandra Dumitrescu for her inspiring talk, the lively discussion and for sharing her great expertise with the audience.
ETA Project Research Grant for LOCOTACT PostDoc Leonardo de Assis
1st International LOCOTACT Conference 2023
The 1st International LOCOTACT Conference has been a great success!
During three days more than 120 participants were able to intensively exchange and discuss the latest research results on local thyroid hormone action, develop new ideas and establish new collaborations and networks for the future. We feel very honored that many international renowened experts in the field of thyroid hormone action followed our invitation and delivered inspriring and superb lectures! THANK YOU!
Anita Boelen - Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands
Krishna Chatterjee - Cambridge Clinical Research Centre, UK
Monica Dentice - University of Naples, Italy
Anthony Hollenberg - Boston Medical Center, USA
Laurent Sachs - CNRS-MNHN, Paris, France
W. Edward Visser – EMC Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Graham Williams - Imperial College London, UK
Since LOCOTACT is very passionate about promoting young talents we are extremely pleased that many young scientists were able to present their projects in lectures and during the poster sessions and that at an exceptionally high level. The three best poster presentations were awarded with a poster prize - congratulations to the prize winners: Niki Alevyzaki (Lab of Heike Heuer), Leonardo de Assis (Lab of Henrik Oster) and Lisa Ständer (Lab of Timo D. Müller).
1st row: Impressions of the 1st Intenational LOCOTACt conference; 2nd row: Best Poster Presentation awardees (f.l.t.r): Niki Alevyzaki, Leonardo de Assis, Lisa Ständer; 3rd row: CRC/TR 296 LOCOTACT consortium 2023. (Pictures © locotact)
LOCOTACT at 66th annual meeting of the Germany Society for Endocrinology (DGE)
The 66th annual meeting of the Germany Society for Endocrinology (DGE) took place from 05.-07. June 2023 in Baden-Baden.
Many LOCOTACT researchers have been invited to give oral presentations and present posters.
Oral presentations: Steffen Mayerl (Essen), Peter Kühnen (Berlin), Yara Maria Machlah (Essen), Jakob Gloge (Essen), Knut Mai (Berlin), Timo Müller (Munich)
Poster presentations: Nuria López-Alcántara, Ann-Kathrin Schörding
We are proud to anounce that several prizes have been awarded to LOCOTACT members:
von Basedow-Preis: Nuria López-Alcántara (PhD candidate in the lab of Jens Mittag, P14) for her project on the role of thyroid hormone receptor β in the progression of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. read more
YARE travel grant: Julia Maier (PhD candidate in the lab of Jens Mittag, P12) is conducting research to elucidate molecular mechanisms of hypothyroidism in anxiety disorders. read more
Poster award: Ann-Kathrin Schörding (Clinician Scientist in the lab of Lars Möller) for her poster about "Bone metabolism in mice requires canonical TRα action". 
Left: from left to right: Nuria López Alcántara and Julia Maier in front of the CBBM research building at University of Lübeck (picture: Jens Mittag).
Middle: Nuria López Alcántara at DGE 2023 during the "von Basedow-Preis" Lecture (picture: Julia Maier).
Right: Ann-Kathrin Schörding in front of her poster (picture: Christoph Hoppe).
Cardiac defect in rare genetic disease unraveled - new LOCOTACT publication
It is well established that high levels of thyroid hormone cause elevated heart rate. However, patients with a mutation in their thyroid hormone receptor are surprisingly resistant against this effect. Researchers of the Institute of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the “Center of Brain Behavior and Metabolism” (CBBM) have now unraveled the underlying molecular mechanism in the corresponding animal model.
„We learnt from our colleagues in Cambridge that their patients with a mutation in thyroid hormone receptor alpha, which they routinely treat with high doses of thyroxine, did not respond with elevated heart rate”, elaborates Prof Jens Mittag, leader of the study published in the prestigious journal “Nature Communications”. “We were able to replicate this finding in our corresponding animal model, which allowed us in depth studies. These studies revealed that the heart has a defect due to the mutation, which arises already during embryonal development. As a consequence, several cardiac ion channels are no longer regulated by thyroid hormone leading to the observed resistance.”
„Most interestingly, the regulation of two important pacemaker channels is still intact in the animals, which demonstrates that these channels are not the sufficient to elevate heart rate”, adds Dr. Riccardo Dore, first author of the study. “Given that current textbooks assign the elevated heart rate in hyperthyroidism to these two channels, this aspect of cardiac thyroid hormone action needs to be rewritten.”
Find the publication here.
Inspiring and motivating insights into diverse career options
The LOCOTACT Career Days were a successful event for all participants and guest speakers! We look back on two days of great insights into the many career opportunities available to our Clinician Scientists, PostDocs, and MDs and PhDs.
Many thanks go to: Dagmar Führer, Alexander Boreham, Kostja Renko, Timo Müller, Marius Richter, Christian Strasburger, Denise Zwanziger, Peter Kühnen, Corina Madreiter-Sokolowski, Roman Rehor, Vedrana Tabor, Niels-Peter Becker, Mariel Morales-Sahm, Thomas Wallach & Bettina Otto.
For more details, please have a look on our programme.
LOCOTACT publication deciphers new role of thyroid hormones in early brain development!
In the study single-cell RNA sequencing technology was used to obtain an unbiased global view of the role of TRα1 in hypothalamus development, cell-type diversity and the cellular transcriptome. The groups of Prof. Malte Spielmann and Prof. Jens Mittag could show that defective TRα1 signaling has surprisingly little effect on the development of hypothalamic neuronal populations. In contrast, it heavily affects the development of hypothalamic oligodendrocytes, which seem to require TRα1 signaling for full maturation. They subsequently demonstrate that early postnatal thyroid hormone action is crucial for the development of this cell type. Read more.
Find the publication here.
Successful start of the Joint Online Event Series: Equity and Female Opportunities in Academia
On Wednesday, 08.02.2023 we started into our online event series with a workshop entitled: Are you hiring the best people? Limiting unconscious bias by structuring employee selection held by Prof. Dr. Tanja Hentschel, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Business School.
Tanja Hentschel explained why and how biases and stereotypes in the application process can influence personnel selection.
All participants got great insights how we can reduce these biases through professional personnel selection processes and how we can customize them.
Because in the end, we all want to hire the person who is best suited for the position and not the person who is most like us, don’t we?
Many thanks to Tanja Hentschel and all participants from TRR 289 Treatment Expectation and CRC/TR 296 LOCOTACT!
Please find the upcoming events in the Joint Online Event Series here.
LOCOTACT Lectures - Astrid Westendorf
We are happy to announce the first LOCOTACT Lecture in this winter semester.
On October, 27th, 2022, Prof. Astrid Westendorf, Institute of Immunology, University Hospital Essen, will talk about
"Immune responses in the intestinal mucosa: Inflammation versus immunoregulation"
You can download there lecture poster here.
All Guests are cordially invited to join the LOCOTACT lectures! The online lecture takes place via Zoom at 5.00 pm (CET).
To register, please contact our
