The LOCOTACT consortium congratulates our PostDoc Sebastian Hönes (P10) for receiving this year's ETA Project Research Grant (Basic). With this grant Sebastian receives 20.000 € for his research. 

On behalf of all LOCOTACT members, we wish you every success with the project!

The fact that discrimination against female scientists is certainly not an outdated problem, but a highly relevant topic, could be experienced by all participants of the panel discussion on September 22. Inspired by the content of the film Picture A Scientist and moderated by Dr. Christina Altstötter-Gleich, the panel guests Prof. Britta Siegmund, Prof. Nicole Krämer, Prof. Karen Shire and Prof. Dagmar Führer-Sakel discussed their impressions of the film, their own experiences in their professional careers and everyday work, as well as cultural and structural differences between Germany, Europe and North America. The panel guests were in agreement that it is important to be a good example, to strengthen and support young female colleagues and, above all, to advocate for equal treatment in decision-making committees.
LOCOTACT would like to thank all panelists for the great contributions and inspirations that were shared with the audience, as well as the openness to talk about very personal experiences and looks back on a successful evening. Thank you!

During the last four days many of our LOCOTACT researchers traveled to Brussels to participate in the 44^th Annual Meeting of the European Thyroid Association!

 

We are proud that many of our members have been invited to give talks and present posters: 

Oral presentations: Dagmar Führer-Sakel (P08, P10, Z03; Essen), Lars Möller (P10, P18; Essen), Josef Köhrle (P16; Berlin), Steffen Mayerl (P19; Essen), Pieter Vancamp (Z03; Essen), Leonardo de Assis (P13; Lübeck), Nina Härting (P11; Essen), Robert Opitz (P06; Berlin)

Poster presentations: Valeria Fernandez-Vallone (Z01; Berlin), Androniki Alevyzaki (P01; Essen), Andrea Alcaide Martín (P19; Essen), Adina Graffunder (P04; Berlin), Nuria López Alcántara (P14; Lübeck), Audrey Bresser (P04; Berlin), Julia Maier (P12; Lübeck), Sabrina Asaad (P17; Berlin)

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​Furthermore, several prizes have been awarded to LOCOTACT researchers:

Together with the invited panel guests and the audience, we would like to actively address the role discrimination still plays today for women of all ages and career levels in science and research.

After watching the movie “Picture a Scientist”, we invite you to talk about impressions of the film, name existing problems and discuss in a solution-oriented manner.

 

Time and place: 22.09.2022, 5.00 pm in Zoom

Movie: Limited amount of free individual tickets to stream the film. After registration the film is available online with an individual code from 14.09. until 21.09.2022. 

 

Registration mandatory: via locotact@uk-essen.de until 19.09.2022. We will provide the code for the film and the link for the Zoom discussion.

Note: The movie is in English and the panel discussion will be in German.

The LOCOTACT consortium thanks Prof. Dr. Mathew Fuxjager, Associate Professor at the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Brown University, Rode Island, for his fascinating lecture on hormones in birds and the effect on skeletal muscle and behaviour  

 

The lively discussion after the talk reflected the broad interest and fascination among the listeners, who are mostly used to hear about endokrine-related topics in human research.

Thank you Matt, for encouraging to thinking out of the box! 

The LOCOTACT Lecture summerbreak is over and we are happy to announce next week's talk.

On Thursday, 25^th of August 2022, Prof. Dr. Mathew Fuxjager, Associate Professor at the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Brown University, Rode Island, USA, will talk about "Evolution of the androgenic system in birds: a focus on skeletal muscle".

The Fuxjager lab investigates the local effects of testosterone in the brain, the evolution of the hormonal system, and its relationship to the motor functioning for sexual behaviour.

 

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 LOCOTACT Central Office 

 

LOCOTACT thanks Professor Tienush Rassaf for presenting his research to our consortium.

 

Under the title "Cardioprotection in acute myocardial infarction - per aspera ad astra” all guests got an impression of the broad range of cardiovascular pathologies and mechanisms of cardiotoxicity. 

 

The lively discussion after the lecture rounded off a successful scientific evening.

Did you ever search for your own data and lose track of your documentation? Did you ever fail to reproduce someone elses research? Wouldn’t it be nice if your data would be well organized right from the beginning of a project?

This week, Stephanie Rehwald and Sophia Leimer (INF project, Research Data Services University Library Duisburg-Essen) as well as Birte Lindstädt and Justine Vandendorpe (ZB MED, Information Centre for Life Sciences) gave insights how good research data management can make the difference. In this interactive workshop, they shared practical tips and tricks how to manage and document data throughout data collection, analysis, publication, long-term storage, archiving, and how to prepare data for reuse.

 

Many thanks to the whole organizing team for this very important workshop for all LOCOTACT members!

Next week, on June 23^rd at 5.00 pm,  we are glad to welcome Professor Tienush Rassaf, Head of the Department of Cardiology and Vascular Medicine at the University Hospital Essen, for our last LOCOTACT lecture before the summer break.

 

Professor Rassaf will present his talk entitled "Cardioprotection in acute myocardial infarction - per aspera ad astra”

 

He investigates a broad range of cardiovascular pathologies and mechanisms of cardiotoxicity. He has analysed cardioprotective signaling cascades in acute myocardial infarction and ischemia/reperfusion injury, with a strong translational approach and focus on drug development.

 

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). If you want to register, please contact our Central Office LOCOTACT

Yesterday we enjoyed the LOCOTACT lecture given by Prof. Dr. Anthony Martin Gerdes from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology.

Thank you very much for taking your time!

 

Professor Gerdes explained the consequences of low cardiac T3 and talked about recent clinical studies in the context of thyroid hormone treatment of heart failure.

 

Look forward to our LOCOTACT Lecture in May 2022!

Prof. Dr. Anthony Martin Gerdes will explain how low cardiac tissue T3 levels influence heart diseases, and talk about the consequences, and potential benefits from normalizing cardiac tissue T3.

 

Prof. Gerdes is the Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine at the New York Institute of Technology. His team's research already contributed to a safe treatment and monitoring protocol that can be readily translated to patients with cardiac issues and is awaiting clinical trials.  

 

You can download there Lecture Poster here.

 

Many thanks to our guest Prof. Dr. Anthony Hollenberg, for his inspiring talk in the context of our monthly LOCOTACT lectures.

 

We really appreciate the new insights into thyroid hormone action Prof. Hollenberg shared and, moreover, the time he invested in the detailed and vital discussion following his talk. 

 

 

We proudly present the speaker for our LOCOTACT Lecture in April 2022:

 

Professor Hollenberg is a nationally and internationally known basic and translational researcher investigating the physiological and molecular underpinnings of metabolism with a focus on thyroid disorders. Since February 2018 he serves as Chairman in the Weill Department of Medicine (WDOM), New York. 

 

 

All Guests are cordially invited to join the LOCOTACT Lectures! The online Lecture takes place via Zoom.

If you want to register, please contact our Central Office LOCOTACT

The CRC/TR 296 aims to improve chances for women’s careers in science by raising the awareness of their strengths and potentials. Therefore, we are pleased to announce the LOCOTACT Workshop Series 2022/2023: Equal Opportunities in Research.

 

The workshops address your motivation to develop own action plans, improve your communication and leaderships skills, or transport your knowledge using an effective and attractive scientific writing style.

All workshops take place online and combine lecture with active discussions, exercises, and peer workshopping.

You can download the Workshop poster here.
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We will gladly accept your registration or questions via e-mail to LOCOTACT

 

 

Like in 2021, the iRTG is happy to support four new MD candidates with fellowships! 

 

Tobias Bolte examines the role of thyroid hormone action in human cortical development (Project P04; PI: Prof. Peter Kühnen).

Jakob Gloge investigates thyroid hormone effects on ethanol-induced hepatocyte damage (Project P18; PI: Prof. Lars Möller).

Katharina Kotzur characterizes the potential of seletive deiodinase inhibitors in intact cells in vitro (Project P16; PI: Prof. Josef Köhrle).

Elena Schmaler studies the impact of a moderate thyroid hormone deficiency on cholestatic liver disease in male mice (Project P18; PI: PD Dr. Denise Zwanziger).

 

With its own symposium, LOCOTACT was present at this year’s annual meeting of the German Congress of Endocrinology (DGE). Originally planned to take place in Baden-Baden, Germany, the congress committee decided to go for another virtual event. 

On Saturday, 19.03.2022, the LOCOTACT symposium was chaired by Professor Dagmar Führer-Sakel (Essen) and Professor Jens Mittag (Lübeck). During the symposium, our CRC/TR 296 members Dr. Helge Müller-Fielitz, (Lübeck), Professor Lars Möller (Essen), and Professor Henrik Oster (Lübeck) gave insights in their scientific research. LOCOTACT members were present in various sessions of the congress; among them PIs Dr. Steffen Mayerl (P19), Professor Joachim Spranger (P15), and iRTG students Nuria López Alcántara (P14), and Julia Maier (P12).

Prior to opening of the DGE annual meeting, Professor Dagmar Führer-Sakel was invited to give a statement in the online press conference. In this context, she gave our consortium a stage and presented the topics and aims of LOCOTACT to the attending journalists. You can access a record of the press conference here: DGE Congress press conference

 

Following the press conference, Medical Tribune published a report about LOCOTACT:
Medical Tribune LOCOTACT

 

See you at the DGE congress in 2023!

We congratulate Professor Peter Kühnen (Charité – University Hospital Berlin) and PD Timo Müller (Helmholtz-German Research Centre for Environmental Health) for receiving a Consolidator Grant each from the European Research Council. This highly prestigious grant honours groundbreaking research in Europe and thus awards our CRC/TR members Peter Kühnen and Timo Müller for their excellent work at scientific frontiers.

 

Find the current press releases from both universities here:

 

 

Did you ever search for your own data and lose track of your documentation? Did you ever fail to reproduce someone elses research? Wouldn’t it be nice if your data would be well organized right from the beginning of a project? Good research data management can make the difference! In this workshop, we give insights how to manage and document data throughout data collection, analysis, publication, long-term storage, archiving, and how to prepare your data for reuse.
On 20 and 22 June 2022 (9:00 am - 12:30 pm) the INF project and the Research Data Services (RDS) of the University of Duisburg-Essen (https://www.uni-due.de/rds/) will jointly offer in cooperation with the ZB MED (https://www.zbmed.de/) a workshop on Research Data Management (RDM) in Medical and Biomedical Sciences in the CRC/TR 296 LOCOTACT. The workshop will provide a general introduction to the basics of RDM in addition to best practices, subject-specific requirements, and examples from the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).
The two-day workshop will take place online and is intended for all-qualification-level (bio-)medical researchers, especially for PhD/MD students of the CRC/TR 296 LOCOTACT, postdocs and PIs are also welcome to join. The course will be taught in English. 
 

Registration: until 30.05.2022 via locotact@uk-essen.de with subject: RDM workshop

We thank Prof. Miguel López for his fantastic talk entitled “Obesity Wars: A new hope, hypothalamic AMPK targeting”.

 

Prof. López gave insights in his work and his stunning findings about hypothalamic AMPK targeting in the context of obesity treatment. His research group “NeurObesity” is based in the Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS) at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Spain.

 

We are curious about his future investigations and wish him a successful research year 2022.

 

Congratulations to Dr. Steffen Mayerl (LOCOTACT PI) who has been awarded with the Karl-Oberdisse-Preis 2022!

The "Karl Oberdisse Prize" of the North Rhine-Westphalian Society of Endocrinology and Diabetology is awarded for the best clinical or experimental work in the field of endocrinology and diabetology, which has been developed to a substantial extent in North Rhine-Westphalia by a physician or scientist.

 

 

 

We proudly present the speaker of our LOCOTACT Lecture in February 2022: Prof. Dr. Miguel López

 

Prof. López‘ “NeurObesity” group is interested in the hypothalamic regulation of energy balance in the context of obesity. The main expertise of the group is hypothalamic neuropeptides with a focus on orexins, hypothalamic lipid metabolism/AMPK, and ER stress.

 

All Guests are cordially invited to join the LOCOTACT Lectures!

 

The Online Lecture takes place via Zoom. If you want to register, please contact LOCOTACT Central Office locotact@uk-essen.de.

We thank Prof. Matthias Gunzer for his delightful talk about “Neutrophils in sterile and infectious inflammation“ with stunning images of biological structures and processes.
Prof. Gunzer demonstrated the impressive imaging possibilities his Lab and Team provides.
We enjoyed the fruitful discussion afterwards and are happy to welcome him in the future for further insights in his work.

 

 

We proudly present the speaker of our LOCOTACT Lecture in January 2022: Prof. Dr. Matthias Gunzer

The Gunzer Lab aims to characterize the dynamics of immune cell behaviour, their motility and migratory pattern as well as formation of cell-cell interaction within the course of the immune response in vivo by applying a wide range of specialized imaging technologies. Detailed information can be found here.

 

All Guests are cordially invited to join the LOCOTACT Lectures!

 

The Online Lecture takes place via Zoom. If you want to register, please contact LOCOTACT Central Office locotact@uk-essen.de.

 

 

Congratulations to Caroline Frädrich (LOCOTACT member), Dr. Kostja Renko & Prof. Dr. Josef Köhrle (LOCOTACT PI), who have been awarded with the 2021 Research Award "Alternatives to Animal Testing" of the State of Berlin to promote the development of replacement and supplementary methods in accordance with the 3R principles for their project "Etablierung einer versatilen High Throughput Screening-Plattform zur Identifizierung endokriner Disruptoren auf Basis der Sandell-Kolthoff-Reaktion".

The award ceremony will take place on December 9 at 10 am and can be accessed via the following link.

Please find more information about the Berlin Research Award and the award ceremony here.

 

Congratulations to the LOCOTACT PIs Prof. Heike Heuer and Dr. Steffen Mayerl who have been awarded at this year's conference of the British Society for Endocrinology (SFE/BES 2021) in Edinburgh.

Prof. Heike Heuer received the prestigious Pitt-Rivers Medal for outstanding research contributions in the field of thyroid diseases.

Dr. Steffen Mayerl received the award for the "Best Oral - Thyroid" presentation during the conference. His group is investigating the relationship between thyroid hormone transport and epileptic seizures in patients with MCT8 deficiency. Read more

Finally, the PhD and MD students had the opportunity to meet in person.

Jeremiah Hendren gave an excellent 1.5-day workshop on "Academic Writing" with plenty of time for participants to work in small groups on their own writing.

Also invited was Sebastian Hönes, who spoke about mouse models in TH research on the one hand, and shared some experiences and thoughts on career options and work-life balance on the other.

Antonia Mondorf, spokesperson of the YARE board, took the opportunity to introduce YARE and its activities.

 

The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) honors Senior Professor Dr. Josef Köhrle, LOCOTACT PI, Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, Charité - University Hospital Berlin, with the European Hormone Medal 2022. This is awarded to an international scientist who has made significant research contributions in the field of basic or clinical endocrinology.
He receives this award for basic research in the field of endocrinology and for his commitment to the promotion of young endocrinologists.
The award ceremony will follow the plenary lecture "Great impact in low quantities - thyroid hormones, trace elements and endocrine disruptors" at the European Congress of Endocrinology, ECE 2022 in Milan. read more

 

We congratulate Prof. Dr. Kristina Lorenz, LOCOTACT PI, who has been awarded with the PHOENIX Research Award 2021 in the category Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy!

The awarding of this prestigious prize is based on Prof. Lorenz' research published in Nature Commun in 2020, "Interference with ERK-dimerization at the nucleocytosolic interface targets pathological ERK1/2 signaling without cardiotoxic side-effects".

More information about the research and the award can be found here. Video of the award ceremony.

 

We thank Prof. Jan G. Hengstler for his excellent talk in the November edition of the LOCOTACT Lectures!

 

The audience has been highly impressed by the innovative technique to visualize liver cells intravitally.

PD Dr. Anna Cirkel, LOCOTACT PI, is the winner of the Renate-Maaß-Research Award in 2021!

With this esteemed award the Renate-Maaß-Foundation in Lübeck recognizes the outstanding work of Dr. Cirkel in studying the influence of thyroid hormone on brain function, memory formation and behaviour. More information about the research of Dr. Cirkel and the Award can be found here.

Prof. Heike Heuer, LOCOTACT PI, is the 2021 British Thyroid Association Pitt-Rivers Lecturer!

She will give her Medal Lecture about the “Role of thyroid hormone transporters in brain development and function” on Monday November 8 at 14:00 GMT at the SfE BES 2021 in Edinburgh.

The Society for Endocrinology interviewed Prof. Heuer about her career, her inspirations, challenges and future visions in TH research. Follow this link to read the whole interview.

Congratulations to this renowned award!

We are pleased to announce the final program for the LOCOTACT Lectures in the winter semester 2021/22!

 

04.11.2021, 5.00 pm

Prof. Dr. Jan G. Hengstler, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund

 

09.12.2021, 5.00 pm

Dr. Gad Vatine, The Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell (RMSC) Research Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

 

13.01.2022, 5.00 pm

Prof. Dr. Matthias Gunzer, Institute for Experimental Immunology and Imaging, University of Duisburg-Essen

 

10.02.2022, 5.00 pm

Prof. Miguel López Pérez, Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases, University of Santiago de Compostela

 

You can download the flyer here.

Many thanks to Guo Huang for his impressive presentation to kick off the LOCOTACT Lectures.

 

Especially for the young scientists of our CRC the lectures has been a great inspiration and motivation!

 

Guo Huang enjoyed all discussions and interactions about his talk.

We would like to congratulate two award winners of our LOCOTACT consortium!

 

Junior group leader and LOCOTACT PI Dr. Steffen Mayerl was awarded with the ETA Jack Robbins Prize for his presentation on the role of thyroid hormone transporters in GABAergic interneuron development.

 

Ann-Kathrin Schörding, MD student in the group of Prof. Lars Moeller received the prestigious Young Investigator Award for her outstanding presentation on canonical thyroid hormone action in bone development.

 

Thanks to everyone who actively paticipated and represented our consortium during the meeting!

Only a few days are left until the opening of the European THYROID Association eConference 2021!

 

It is our great pleasure to announce six speakers of the LOCOTACT consortium:

 

Dr. Robert Opitz, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Saturday (04.09.) Oral Session I: 01:00 PM - 02:45 PM

Dr. Steffen Mayerl, Universitätsklinikum Essen - Sunday (05.09.) Oral Session II: 06:15 PM – 07:15 PM

Prof. Jens Mittag, Universität zu Lübeck - Monday (06.09.) Scientific Symposium 6: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

Ann-Kathrin Schörding, Universitätsklinikum Essen - Tuesday (07.09.) Young Investigator Session: 02:00 PM – 03:00 PM

Dr. Janina Pape (née Gassen), Universitätsklinikum Essen - Tuesday (07.09.) Young Investigator Session: 02:00 PM – 03:00 PM

Dr. Sebastian Hönes, Universitätsklinikum Essen - Tuesday (07.09.) Oral Session 4: 04:15 PM – 05:15 PM

 

You can view the full programme here or download it here.

The monthly lectures with invited guest speakers start on September 9, 2021 and will take place on thursdays from 5:00 to 6:00 pm via Zoom.

The first iRTG Workshop is going to take place in Münster from 25^th to 27^th of November 2021.

 

We could win Jeremiah Hendren for a 2-days Scientific Writing Workshop.

Detailed programme information are following soon.

We warmly welcome four young scientists in LOCOTACT who successfully applied for iRTG MD Fellowships!

 

Audrey Bresser will investigate TH regulation of neuronal development in human cerebral organoids (Project 04; PI: Prof. Peter Kühnen).

Livia Hoerner will study selenium-contanining proteins as biomarkers of tissue function and damage (Project 17; PI: Prof. Lutz Schomburg).

Jonas Rotter will analyse the function and expression of thyroid hormone transporters in the elderly and in patients with neurodegenerative diseases (Project 03; PI: Prof. Ingo Bechmann).

Wiebke Werner will unravel the immune microenvironment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the context of local thyroid hormone metabolism (Project 15; PI: Prof. Frank Tacke)

 

We are pleased that the project of Dr. Steffen Mayerl on "Impact of thyroid hormone transport on seizure generation" is now part of LOCOTACT as Project 19. 

 

In this project, Dr. Mayerl and his team will investigate the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the increased seizure susceptibility of human MCT8 patients.

 

To this end, they will address the importance of TH transporters for different neuronal populations as well as the consequences of seizure induction in TH transporter deficiency and their role in the transition to epilepsy. 

The 1^st LOCOTACT annual retreat was a great success with thrilling talks and discussions in Zoom and Gather.Town. 

Four outstanding poster presentations by our young scientists were honoured with awards: 

 

It‘s our great pleasure to announce that we could win Dr. W. Edward Visser as the Keynote Speaker for our Retreat!

 

We are looking forward to an excellent talk, thrilling discussions and fruitful Meet the Keynote Speaker Sessions.

Topic: "MCT8 deficiency: diagnosis and therapy"

June 03-04, 2021

Online Congress

March 03-05, 2021

Online Congress

January 29, 2021

M.Sc. Irina Kube (Essen) erhielt auf der 26. Jahrestagung der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Gesellschaft für Endokrinologie & Diabetologie den Karl-Oberdisse-Preis für ihre Studien zur Gallensteinentstehung unter Hypothyreose - Wir gratulieren herzlich!

Die einen sind ständig müde, unkonzentriert und frieren leicht, die anderen klagen über Herzrasen, Schlaflosigkeit und Hitzewallungen.

 

Hinter beidem steckt oftmals eine Erkrankung der Schilddrüse. Jeder dritte Deutsche leidet im Verlaufe seines Lebens an einer Schilddrüsenveränderung.

 

Das kleine Organ unterhalb des Kehlkopfes wird häufig unterschätzt. Dabei lenkt es viele wichtige Funktionen im Körper.

Die nur 25 Gramm schwere Schilddrüse liegt wie ein Schmetterling an der Vorderseite des Halses - und sie ist eine richtige Hormonfabrik.

 

Sie beeinflusst Stoffwechsel und Wachstum, stärkt die Knochen und reguliert das seelische Wohlbefinden.

 

Und: Sie sie ist ein zentraler Faktor für die Leistungsfähigkeit unseres Gehirns.

Prof. Dr. Peter Kühnen (Charité, Berlin) ist für seine Studien zur Normalisierung des Körpergewichtes mit dem renommierten Paul- Martini-Preis ausgezeichnet worden - Wir gratulieren herzlich!

Topics were

Ein neuer Sonderforschungsbereich führt nun einen Perspektivwechsel durch, der Angebot und Nachfrage von Schilddrüsenhormonen in den jeweiligen Organen unter die Lupe nimmt.

 

Insbesondere neue Erkenntnisse zu molekularbiologischen Prozessen und den Einfluss der lokalen Schilddrüsenhormonwirkung in Gehirn, Leber und Herz sollen ein Licht auf die Krankheitsentstehung werfen und neue Therapieansätze ermöglichen.