Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Gerd Heusch has been honored with the „Jan Šlézák Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences“ during the annual meeting of the European Section of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (IACS) in Prague, Czech Republic.

Bridging the knowledge gap between basic science and clinical cardiology. Education is crucial to bridge the widening gap between discovery science and clinical science.

Intraperitoneal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) infusion in female mice attenuates the injury induced by intraperitoneal isoproterenol infusion one week
later, as reflected by reduced troponin release, attenuated contractile dysfunction and reduced mortality. The attenuated injury is associated with an altered
immune cell profile in bone marrow, spleen and circulating blood and an attenuated myocardial inflammatory response, and interferon γ is causal to induce such
response...

Dr. Chantal Eickelmann and M.Sc. Michelle Allf were awarded the Young Researcher and Innovator Conference Grant by COST Action CA22169 for their participation in the 22nd Annual Scientific Session “Shedding Light on Emerging Metabolic Targets in Cardiovascular Diseases,” which took place from June 22 to 25, 2025, in Bordeaux, France.

Congratulations!

EU-METAHEART (CA22169, https://cost-metaheart.eu/), a European program funded by the EU's COST initiative, is investigating metabolic changes in heart failure. This consortium of scientists has now compiled a special issue of Nature Reviews Cardiology focusing on metabolic changes in heart failure (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-025-01181-8). This issue focuses on substrate and intermediate metabolism, vascular dysfunction, inflammation, and mechanical-energetic uncoupling in individual review articles. We were involved in two of these articles: one focuses on vascular function (https://doi.org/ 10.1038/s41569-025-01163-w) and another on metabolism in the immune system (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-025-01165-8).

On June 13, 2025, the big day arrived: two of our research assistants were formally awarded their doctoral degrees. We would like to congratulate them on this significant milestone and are proud of their outstanding achievements.

We wish them every success and all the best for their future careers, whether in academia or beyond!

In the context of cardiovascular disease, the spleen has primarily been described as an immune organ that contributes to persistent inflammation after a heart attack and the development of heart failure. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Petra Kleinbongard and Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Dr. hc. Gerd Heusch is increasingly shifting the focus on the spleen to a completely different area. The Cardioprotection Working Group at the Institute of Pathophysiology (Faculty of Medicine, UDE/UK Essen) has demonstrated that the spleen—after activation by the vagus nerve—plays a key role in protecting the heart from damage caused by reduced blood flow to the coronary arteries during a heart attack.

Scientific contacts:

Prof. Dr. Petra Kleinbongard, Prof. Dr. Gerd Heusch

The “Laborjournal” regularly evaluates which scientists are particularly successful in publishing. This time, the focus was on the field of physiology. Two researchers from Essen are among the top 20 most cited minds in this field: Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Dr. hc. Gerd Heusch, Institute of Pathophysiology, and Prof. Dr. Erich Gulbins, Institute of Molecular Biology (tumor research). With 109 articles, pathophysiologist Heusch has achieved a total of 5,092 citations, while molecular biologist Gulbins has achieved a total of 4,769 citations with 156 articles. Publications from 2014 to 2023 were analyzed for the current physiology ranking.

Along with submitting an abstract for ESM 2025, early-career scientists (students or those with less than 5 years of postdoctoral experience) who are members of ESM can apply for a travel award of €600 (8 awards available), which covers the registration fee and helps with travel expenses. Travel grants will be awarded based on the quality of the abstracts submitted.

Heusch G, Kleinbongard P

Heusch G, Kleinbongard P

Cardiovascular Research (2025) https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvaf052

Heusch G, Kleinbongard P

JACC: Basic to Translational Science  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacbts.2024.08.010

Sean M. Davidson, Ioanna Andreadou, Charalambos Antoniades, Jozef Bartunek, Cristina Basso, Bianca J.J.M. Brundel, Robert A. Byrne, Gemma Chiva-Blanch, Paula da Costa Martins, Paul C. Evans, Henrique Girão, Zoltan Giricz, Can Gollmann-Tepeköylü, Tomasz Guzik, Mariann Gyöngyösi, Norbert Hübner, Michael Joner, Petra Kleinbongard, Thomas Krieg, Elisa Liehn, Rosalinda Madonna, Ange Maguy, Melanie Paillard, Maurizio Pesce, Steffen E. Petersen, Gabriele G. Schiattarella, Joost P.G. Sluijter,
Sabine Steffens, Katrin Streckfuss-Bömeke, Matthias Thielmann, Art Tucker, Sophie Van Linthout, William Wijns, Johann Wojta, Joseph C. Wu, and Cinzia Perrino

Cardiovascular Research (2025) https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvaf023

Professor Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Gerd Heusch has been elected as the new President of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (AWK) by its General Assembly. As part of his inaugural activities, he met with Minister of Science and Culture Ina Brandes at the Ministry. Professor Dr. Gerd Heusch succeeds Professor Julia Bolles-Wilson in this role.

Source: Press release of the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia

Gerd Heusch and Petra Kleinbongard

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-024-01114-x

Dr. med. Helmut Lieder, a scientist at the Institute of Pathophysiology, has been honored with the Hans and Gertie Fischer Foundation Award. The ceremony took place during the 198th Conference of the Rhineland-Westphalian Society for Internal Medicine e.V. (RWGIM), held from November 15 to 16, 2024, in Gelsenkirchen under the leadership of Priv.-Doz. Dr. Heike Bruck.

The award annually recognizes outstanding clinical and experimental original works in the fields of cardiology and internal medicine that focus on researching the causes, prevention, or treatment of specialized diseases. Dr. Lieder impressed the committee with his research on "The Importance of the Vago-Splenic Axis for Signal Transduction of Cardioprotective Maneuvers in Humans."

"This award not only acknowledges my work but also underscores the relevance of new signaling pathways in cardioprotection, which could enhance the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the future," stated Dr. Lieder.

Source: Press release by the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg Essen

The appointment took place as part of a symposium marking the 33rd anniversary of the Center for Biomedical Research and Translational Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna.

Clarivate lists publications authored by Prof. Gerd Heusch within the top 1% ranking by citations and publication year. 

Lieder, HR
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol; 10.1152/ajpheart.00739.2024

20 Seconds instead of 90 minutes: Faster measurement results thanks to AI

Researchers have traditionally spent around 90 minutes manually analyzing images of affected pig hearts to determine the size of a heart attack in laboratory experiments. Now, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerates this process to approximately 20 seconds. This innovative method has been developed by a research team from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and the University Hospital Essen.

Chantal Eickelmann received the "IACS-ES Travel Award" at the 10th Annual Meeting of the European Section of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (IACS) in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Prof. Dr. Gerd Heusch received the "Howard Morgan Award for Distinguished Achievements in Cardiovascular Research" at the 10th Annual Meeting of the European Section of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (IACS) in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Kleinbongard P, Arriola CG, Badimon L, Crisostomo, V, Giricz Z, Gyöngyösi M, Heusch G, Ibanez B, Kiss A, de Kleijn DPV, Podesser BK, Carracedo RR, Rodríguez-Sinovas A, Ruiz-Meana M, Margallo FMS, Vilahur G, Zamorano JL, Zaragoza C, Ferdinandy P, Hausenloy DJ
Basic Res Cardiol; 10.1007/s00395-024-01083-9

Braczko F, Skyschally A, Lieder H, Kather JN, Kleinbongard P, Heusch G
Basic Res Cardiol; 10.1007/s00395-024-01081-x

Chantal Eickelmann received the "ISHR-ES Travel Award" at the congress of the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) in Toulouse, France.
During the cardioprotection session, she presented our unpublished data on the cardiac mitochondrial proteome in Ossabaw miniature pigs. This animal model is characterized by a polygenic predisposition to metabolic syndrome.

Braczko F, Fischl SR, Reinders J, Lieder H, Kleinbongard P
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 10.1152/ajpheart.00211.2024

Lieder HR, Paket U, Skyschally A, Rink AD, Baars T, Neuhäuser M, Kleinbongard P, Heusch G
Vago-splenic signal transduction of cardioprotection in humans. Eur Heart J; 6:ehae250

Coronary heart disease continues to affect many people in Germany and, with its complications such as heart attack, arrhythmias, and heart failure, remains one of the leading causes of death. On April 23, 2024, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts held a public expert symposium to inform about fundamental new scientific findings in the prevention, diagnosis, therapy, and research of coronary heart disease.

Chantal Eickelmann received the "International Early-Career Physiologist (IECP) Travel Award" at the American Physiological Society (APS) "SUMMIT 2024" congress in Long Beach, USA. During the poster presentations, she presented our recently published data on vascular function in Ossabaw miniature pigs. This animal model is characterized by a polygenic predisposition to metabolic syndrome.

Skyschally, A., Kleinbongard, P., Neuhäuser, M., Heusch, G. “Expression of concern”: publication bias for positive preclinical cardioprotection studies. Basic Res Cardiol (2024) doi: 10.1007/s00395-024-01050-4.