News
Joint Online Event Series 2023 - Embedding gender equality in policy, management and personnel
Yesterday afternoon the last event in the Joint Online Event Series organized by LOCOTACT and the TRR 289 Treatment Expectation took place.
The talk profoundly discussed the extensive approach of the University of Graz to diversity and gender equality.
Dr. Christoph Glatz delved into specific interventions and tools employed by the University of Graz and offered insights into their successes and limitations. The key messages emphasised the importance of accountability, monitoring, incentives, and sanctions as crucial factors for achieving positive outcomes. The talk also underscored that the quality of interventions play a vital role in ensuring the long-term sustainability of their effects.
We thank all participants of this lecture and the past event of the series for their interest.
Leonardo de Assis receives Best Science Award 2023
Congratulations to LOCOTACT member Leonardo de Assis for receiving the 2023 Best Science Award of University Lübeck.
Also, LOCOTACT-associated Clinician Scientist from P07, Jannik Prasuhn, was honoured with The Renate-Maaß Price!
Find the corresponding press release here and a post in X here.
We congratulate both for this great achievement!
Sebastian Hönes receives DFG funding
Congratulations to Sebastian Hönes, LOCOTACT PostDoc from P18.
He was today granted a 3-year funding by the DFG for his project
"The role of guanine-quadruplexes in cell type-specific transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of thyroid hormone receptors TRα1 and TRα2"
We wish him every success with this research project!
First hybrid LOCOTACT lecture with Christoph Kuppe
We were very pleased that PD Dr.med. Christoph Kuppe, Division of Nephrology and Clinical Immunology from RWTH University, Medical Faculty, Aachen visited us in Essen for our LOCOTACT Lecture in October 2023.
PD Dr. med. Kuppe talked about the research conducted in his lab including usage of multi-omics data and analysis of human FFPE tissue with the MERFISH technique.
Thank you for this impressing presentation!
Nature Communications Publication: Activation of maternal thyroid hormone receptor affects brown fat tissue in offspring
We congratulate LOCOTACT PI Jens Mittag for his recent publication in Nature Communications!
He and his team found that thyroid hormones in the mother during pregnancy had an influence on the subsequent activity of brown adipose tissue in the offspring.
Abstract:
"It is well established that maternal thyroid hormones play an important role for the developing fetus; however, the consequences of maternal hyperthyroidism for the offspring remain poorly understood. Here we show in mice that maternal 3,3’,5-triiodothyronine (T3) treatment during pregnancy leads to improved glucose tolerance in the adult male offspring and hyperactivity of brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis in both sexes starting early after birth. The activated BAT provides advantages upon cold exposure, reducing the strain on other thermogenic organs like muscle. This maternal BAT programming requires intact maternal thyroid hormone receptor β (TRβ) signaling, as offspring of mothers lacking this receptor display the opposite phenotype. On the molecular level, we identify distinct T3 induced alterations in maternal serum metabolites, including choline, a key metabolite for healthy pregnancy. Taken together, our results connect maternal TRβ activation to the fetal programming of a thermoregulatory phenotype in the offspring"
Original publication:
Oelkrug, R., Harder, L., Pedaran, M. et al. Maternal thyroid hormone receptor β activation in mice sparks brown fat thermogenesis in the offspring. Nat Commun 14, 6742 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42425-w
Caroline Frädrich wins 1st poster prize at MRC opening
Big congratulations to PhD student Caroline Frädrich from P16 for winning the 1st poster prize among more than 40 posters presented at the grand opening symposium of the new Max Rubner Center for Cardiovascular Metabolic Renal Research (MRC) at Charite - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
On September 28, 2023, Caroline presented her poster "Identifying endocrine disruptors via a high throughput screening platform" and was awarded the day after placing first.
Heike Heuer presents at ESPE 2023
The 61st Annual Meeting of the European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE 2023) is dedicated to education, research, knowledge and clinical practice of pediatric endocrinology and metabolism including children’s and adolescent’s disorders of the hormone producing glands of the body and puberty, growth and sexual development problems. These include thyroid, diabetes, early and late puberty, adrenal gland problems and growth hormone deficiency.
LOCOTACT PI Heike Heuer was invited to the ESPE 2023 in order to give a symposium talk in the Thyroid Session on Saturday, 23.09.2023. Her presentation was entitled "The role of thyroid hormone transporters in brain development and function".
Heiker Heuer receives prestigious ETJ Lecture Award at ETA 2023
On September, 9th, 2023, LOCOTACT PI Heiker Heuer was awarded with the highly renowed ETJ Lecture Award from the European Thyroid Association (ETA). This prize is supported by the ETA to draw attention to the work of its journal, the European Thyroid Journal (ETJ).
Thus, Heike Heuer presented in the prestigous plenary ETJ Lecture at the 2023 ETA Meeting taking place in Milan, Italy, about "MCT8 deficiency – basic mplications and therapeutic approaches" and was honoured afterwards by Prof. Simon Pearce, President of the British Thyroid Association and Editor in Chief of the European Thyroid Journal, who handed over the Award.
Congratulations for this great achievement!
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.
