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Due to demographic change, the treatment of old and very old people is becoming increasingly important in clinical practice. This impacts almost all medical disciplines, including surgery, internal medicine and neurology, from basic research to translational research to clinical and healthcare research. The aim of the Graduate School JSAM is therefore to define targets for therapeutic interventions that counteract age-related alterations of cellular and systemic functions. 

A defect of the vocal fold caused by surgery, for example, still can not be adequately treated. By means of nanotechnology, more precisely by Magentic Tissue Engineering (MTE), the individually reconstruction of human vocal cord tissue can achieved.

Post mortem removed human larynxes are used for the extraction of primary vocal fold cells. After the cells take-up superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), a three-dimensional, multi-layered and functional cell construct can be generated using an external magnetic field.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a complex syndrome, in which the mother develops hypertension and proteinuria during the second half of pregnancy. The only definitive treatment for the life threatening symptoms is the delivery of the premature baby. The exact pathways are poorly understood, but the placenta plays a central role.

Individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) suffer from recurring eating attacks. Recent research suggests that body image disturbances are central risk and maintaining factors of BED. It remains unclear whether body image disturbances are rooted in abnormal neuronal body processing. The project aims at assessing the neuronal processing of body and body part images before and after a body image training in individuals with and without BED.

One challenge in trauma surgery is the healing of major bone defects and the treatment of cartilage damage. Tissue replacement of damaged joints with human bone marrow-derived stem cells is a promising therapeutic option in regenerative medicine. However, we have observed that stem cells from different patients show marked differences that have a major impact on the success of stem cell-based therapy. These differences were particularly evident in the ability of the stem cells to form cartilage and bone.

The inhibition of leukocyte migration from the blood stream to the intestine with the integrin antibody vedolizumab is a new column of the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. 

Little is known about the impact of vedolizumab on different leukocyte subsets and the dose-response relationship of the drug.
We hypothesize that the targets of vedolizumab differ at high vs. low serum concentrations, which might result in differential efficacy profiles. 

Novel imaging technology (7 Tesla MRI) allows the description of cortical microstructure in the living human brain. This project uses 7 Tesla MRI to describe the microstructural changes of the motor cortex in ALS patients, and to relate them to behavioral phenotypes and individual pathogenesis. This allows novel insights into the pathophysiology of ALS, and may advance the development of biomarkers that can predict individual trajectories of the disorder.

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Patienten mit einer schweren Nierenerkrankung sind häufig auf eine regelmäßige Blutwäsche (Hämodialyse) angewiesen. Aufgrund der fehlenden Nierenfunktion sind verschiedene Salze (z. B. Natrium und Kalium) im Körper von Dialysepatienten deutlich erhöht. Die Dialysebehandlung kann einen Teil dieser überschüssigen Salze entfernen, jedoch gelingt dies nicht bei allen Patienten gleich gut.

The corticobasal syndrome (CBS) is a rare brain disorder similar to Parkinson’s disease. In addition to causing motor symptoms, CBS affects cognitive aspects of motor control. Patients are often unable to imitate gestures or to pantomime the usage tools they are actually highly familiar with, like a hammer or a toothbrush. This symptom is called apraxia. Further, some patients perform upper limb movements which they do not intend to perform (alien limb phenomena).