News
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.
Dagmar Führer live in Deutschlandfunk radio feature on thyroid diseases
LOCOTACT Spokesperson and PI Dagmar Führer was invited to the Deutschlandfunk radio feature "Sprechstunde".
There, she talked live about the thyroid gland and its diseases.
Listen to the full episode on the Deutschlandfunk website.
Dagmar Führer talks about Local TH action at annual meeting of the German Diabetes Association
LOCOTACT was also present at the Annual Meeting of the German Diabetes Association (DDG). The DDG is one of the largest medical and scientific associations in Germany with over 9,000 members, including physicians in primary and secondary care, scientists, psychologists, pharmacists, diabetes specialists and other diabetes experts.
Dagmar Führer, LOCOTACT spokesperson, was invited to this year's DDG meeting in Berlin. In the session "Endocrine-metabolic factors and cardiovascular disease", held on May, 19th 2023, she talked about "Local TH action and it relevance for metabolism and heart disease”.
LOCOTACT at 2023 RTH Meeting
LOCOTACT was well represented at this year's 14th International Workshop on Resistance to Thyroid Hormone & Thyroid Hormone Action taking place in Asilomar in Monterey, California, USA, from April 26 - 29, 2023.
P10 and P18 PI Lars Möller was invited as a Co-Chair of the Program Committee and P01, P09 and Z02 PI Heike Heuer participated in the meeting.
Furthermore, LOCOTACT was represented on this international stage by PI Steffen Mayerl (Oral presentation: "Cell-specific functions of TH transporters in the mouse CNS") and PhD student Christoph Hoppe (Oral presentation: "Local thyroid hormone action in alcoholic liver disease").
Dagmar Führer - New Vice Chairwoman of The German Society of Internal Medicine
The General Assembly of the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM) took place during the 129th Congress of Internists in April 2023 and involved personnel changes in the society's board.
The general assembly of the DGIM elected LOCOTACT spokesperson Dagmar Führer as a new member of the Board and 3. Vice Chairwoman. Find an article on the election in the March Issue of the "Endokrinologe Informationen" here.
We cordially congratulate Dagmar Führer to this new role.
Steffen Mayerl speaks at RTH Workshop
Steffen Mayerl was invited to this year's RTH Workshop, Asilomar, California, USA.
He represented our LOCOTACT consortium and talked on 26.04.2023 about "Cell-specific functions of TH transporters in the mouse CNS”.
