Principal Investigators

Dr. Sarah Beck

Postdoc

Sarah Beck studied Biomedicine at the University of Würzburg and completed her PhD at the Rudolf Virchow Center for Experimental Biomedicine in 2018 with summa cum laude. Following a research stay at the Medical University in Vienna (Prof. Johannes Schmid), she recently returned to Würzburg. Using her broad and profound technical skill set, including intravital confocal microscopy, generation of novel monoclonal antibodies in mice and rats and genetically modified (humanized) mouse models, her primary research interest now focuses on the cross-talk between platelets, in particular their adhesion receptors, coagulation and endothelial cells to ensure vascular integrity and homeostasis in healthy and disease conditions. In her recent research Sarah has identified the platelet glycoprotein V (GPV) as a central modulator of thrombotic, haemostatic, and thrombo-inflammatory processes, laying the groundwork for new therapeutic strategies to address a range of thrombo-inflammatory disease processes. Her broad research work has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed articles and two patents published.

Projects by Sarah Beck: P02

Institute of Experimental Biomedicine
University Hospital Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

sarah.beck@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.platelets.eu/

Prof. Dr. Markus Bender
Professor (W2) Cardiovascular Cell Biology

Markus Bender completed his biomedicine studies at the University of Würzburg, followed by his
PhD at the Rudolf Virchow Center for Experimental Biomedicine. He then moved to the United
States with a fellowship funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to work at the Harvard
Medical School in Boston. In 2015, he established at the University Hospital Würzburg his research group funded by the Emmy Noether Programme of the DFG, serving as an independent junior research group leader. Since 2022, he has held the position of Heisenberg Professor for Cardiovascular Cell Biology. His laboratory is focused on unraveling the complex mechanisms governing megakaryocyte differentiation and platelet production under (patho)physiological conditions. Specifically, he seeks to elucidate what triggers megakaryocytes to generate platelets, how the biochemical and structural complexity of the microenvironment influences megakaryocyte behaviour, and how alterations in bone marrow megakaryocytes impact platelet function. One particular objective is to decipher how age-related
changes in the bone marrow compartment, driven by low-grade chronic inflammation, influence the
platelet phenotype and contribute to thrombo-inflammatory conditions.

Projects by Markus Bender: P05

Institute of Experimental Biomedicine
University Hospital Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

bender_M1@ukw.de
https://www.platelets.eu/biomed/bender/

Prof. Dr. Anna Frey

Senior physician for internal medicine, cardiology and intensive care, and co-leader of a research group
Anna Frey, M.D., has been working at the University Hospital Würzburg since the beginning of her further training, specializing in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Internal Intensive Care Medicine, and Clinical Acute and Emergency Medicine. Her research interests include both experimental and clinical research, focusing on heart-brain interaction and inflammatory processes following myocardial infarction in both areas. As a clinician in intensive care medicine, she has direct access to patients with cardiogenic shock, who are the focus of analysis within the framework of the graduate college. The recruitment of her own patient cohorts, both with heart failure and after myocardial infarction, underpinned clinical research projects. In the experimental animal sector, her laboratory maintains cardiac models of myocardial infarction and heart failure, along with the corresponding examination methods for both small (mice) and large animals (pigs).

Projects by Anna Frey: P03

University Hospital Würzburg

Department of Internal Medicine I
Director: Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Frantz
Oberdürrbacher Str. 6-8
97078 Würzburg
Germany

frey_a@ukw.de
https://www.ukw.de/medizinische-klinik-i/kardiologie/team/kardiologie-detail/name/frey-anna/

Prof. Dr. Georg Gasteiger

Professor (W3) and Chair of the Institute of Systems Immunology

Georg Gasteiger is a full professor and cofounder of the Würzburg Institute and Max-Planck Research Group of Systems Immunology. He studied Medicine in Munich, Vienna, Buenos Aires and New York, and specialized in Medical Microbiology and Virology in Munich, followed by a Postdoc at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Georg is an expert in the biology of immune cells in tissues. His lab investigates the interactions of lymphocytes with the various tissues of the body. The group has made fundamental contributions to the tissue-specific development and regulation of the innate and adaptive immune systems in various organs. Using genetic mouse models, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and multiplex imaging, Georg’s team investigates how immune cells adapt to different tissue contexts, how they function within local cellular networks and how the underlying mechanisms contribute to the defence against infections or tumours or to the development of inflammatory diseases.

With support from an ERC Starting Grant, his lab established sequential infection models that mimic repeated pathogen exposure and aspects of immune senescence. These models are now being used to explore how an experienced immune system shapes homeostasis, tissue repair and pathology. The aim of the current ERC Synergy Grant he coordinates is to develop, within an international consortium, new strategies for the treatment of metastases, based on insights into fundamental mechanisms of tissue immunology.

Projects by Georg Gasteiger: P05

Institute of Systems Immunology
University of Würzburg

Versbacher Str. 9 (E6)
97078 Würzburg
Germany

georg.gasteiger@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.med.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/systemimmunologie 

Dr. Tamara Girbl-Huemer

Junior Group Leader
Dr. Tamara Girbl completed her undergraduate and PhD studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Salzburg, Austria. She undertook her postdoctoral studies as a fellow of the British Heart Foundation in the laboratories of Prof. Sussan Nourshargh (Queen Mary University of London, UK) and Prof. Michael Sixt (Institute of Science and Technology, Austria). In 2020 Dr. Tamara Girbl started her independent junior research group at the Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Würzburg. Her group investigates the basic mechanisms of immune cell migration through blood vessel walls and into sites of inflammation during innate and adaptive immune responses. In order to understand the detailed spatiotemporal interactions of immune cells and platelets with the blood vessel wall, her lab utilizes transgenic mouse models and specialized intravital confocal and 2-photon microscopy. With their research her group aims to contribute to a better understanding of protective immune responses and inflammatory pathologies.

Projects by Tamara Girbl: P06

Rudolf Virchow Center
University of Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

tamara.girbl@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/rvz/research-groups/girbl-group/

Prof. Dr. Katrin Heinze
Professor (W3) and Chair of Molecular Microscopy

Katrin Heinze, Dr. rer. nat. is the Chair of Molecular Microscopy at the Rudolf Virchow Center (RVZ) since 2020, and the speaker of the RVZ since 2024.

Her scientific work mainly deals with the development of fluorescence methods and their biomedical application on various spatiotemporal scales from the single molecule to the whole organ. Bridging biophysical and medical research is the main strength of her work. She has pioneered several spectroscopic and imaging tools such as Fluorescence-Cross-Correlation (FCCS) in live cells, mirror-enhanced fluorescence for super-resolution imaging or multidimensional imaging pipelines. Katrin Heinze also leads the Core Unit Fluorescence Imaging of the Medical Faculty of the JMU, and has built customized light-sheet fluorescence microscopes, mostly operating in the far-red, that allows whole-organ vascular imaging murine bone marrow, brain and heart, with high contrast and resolution. Together with other members of the RTG, her developments were key for several seminal publications where whole-organ 3D-imaging lead to a new model of megakarypoiesis or revealed mechanisms of various platelet-related diseases. Beyond, she teaches and advertises advanced image analysis with great enthusiasm so that everyone, most importantly the next generation of scientists, can use the powerful tool of high-resolution imaging to decipher mechanisms of thrombo-inflammation.

Projects by Katrin Heinze: P01, P08

Rudolf Virchow Center
University of Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

katrin.heinze@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/rvz/forschungsgruppen/heinze-lab/

Dr. Zoltan Nagy
Emmy Noether Group Leader

Dr. Zoltan Nagy leads an independent laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Biomedicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Germany, dedicated to elucidating the critical role of phosphorylation-dependent signal transduction pathways in megakaryocyte development and platelet production. Supported by the prestigious DFG Emmy Noether Program, the group of Dr. Nagy employs an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing a broad spectrum of cutting-edge methods — such as single-cell RNA sequencing, biochemical analytical methods, advanced genomic technologies (including CRISPR editing and transgenic mouse models), along with in situ and in vivo imaging — to shed new light on megakaryocyte and platelet biology.
Dr. Nagy completed his PhD with Dr. Albert Smolenski at the UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland, and his postdoctoral training with Prof. Yotis Senis at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK, where he focused on the regulation of platelet reactivity by kinases and phosphatases. Subsequently, he joined the Institute of Experimental Biomedicine in Würzburg, where he developed his research programme on signalling pathways that regulate megakaryocyte maturation and platelet biogenesis.

Projects by Zoltan Nagy: P04

Institute of Experimental Biomedicine
University Hospital Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

nagy_z@ukw.de
https://www.platelets.eu/biomed/nagy-lab/

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Nieswandt (RTG3190 coordinator)

Professor (W3) and Chair of Experimental Biomedicine I

Bernhard Nieswandt studied biology and biochemistry in Regensburg and Canterbury (UK). From the beginning of his studies, his focus was already on platelets and inflammation, an entirely new research field at this time, and he developed the world’s first antibodies against mouse platelet receptors, which became important tools in the study of these cells.
After his habilitation in experimental medicine, completed at the University of Witten/Herdecke, a prestigious Heisenberg-Fellowship, awarded by the DFG in 2002, allowed him to pursue his basic scientific research at the University of Würzburg, where he has been advancing cardiovascular and neurovascular research with groundbreaking discoveries ever since. He was the first to establish a research group in the newly founded Rudolf Virchow Center, University of Würzburg, and was appointed head of the Chair of Experimental Biomedicine I in 2008. He was coordinator and spokesperson of two DFG-funded research consortia: CRC 688 “Cardiovascular cell-cell interactions” and CRC/TR240 “Platelets”.
With his team, he has laid the foundation for two medications: a Factor XIIa inhibitor from CSL Behring and GPVI inhibitors, which have just entered clinical phase III studies. He has published over 320 papers, cited more than 26,000 times.
In April 2024, Bernhard Nieswandt received a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for his groundbreaking research.

Projects by Bernhard Nieswandt: P01, P04

Institute of Experimental Biomedicine
University Hospital and Rudolf Virchow Center
University of Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

bernhard.nieswandt@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.platelets.eu/

Prof. Dr. Michael Schuhmann
Professor (W2) of Experimental Stroke Research
Michael Schuhmann was appointed as a Professor of Experimental Stroke Research in 2024 and has been the head of the Clinical Neuroimmunology Laboratory at the Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Würzburg (UKW) since 2016. He graduated from the Institute of Pharmacy (JMU Würzburg) and pursued his PhD studies at the WWU in Münster, where he investigated the role of calcium sensing molecules in T cell function and activation under autoimmune inflammatory conditions. Subsequently, as a postdoctoral fellow in the Experimental Stroke Research Group at UKW, he focused on elucidating the role of “thrombo-inflammation” in driving ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in stroke. Dr. Schuhmann’s current research endeavours aim to comprehend the mechanisms underlying penumbral tissue loss during large vascular occlusion in stroke. His laboratory employs a multifaceted approach, combining in vitro screening assays with in vivo analyses using the middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO), as well as human observational studies (biomarker analysis). This comprehensive strategy is aimed at unravelling local cell-cell interactions during hyper-acute (under occlusion) and acute (immediately after recanalization) ischemia-driven inflammatory responses.

Projects by Michael Schuhmann: P07

Department of Neurology
University Hospital Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 11 / B02
97080 Würzburg
Germany

schuhmann_m@ukw.de
https://www.ukw.de/neurologie/team/neurologie-detail/name/schuhmann-michael/

Prof. Dr. Harald Schulze
Professor (W2) Experimental Haemostaseology
Harald Schulze is a biochemist and a professor of Experimental Hemostaseology at the Institute for Experimental Biomedicine at the University Hospital of Würzburg. His research interests lie in congenital and acquired disorders in the function and number of platelets. The working group is concerned with the biology of megakaryocytes, which release mature platelets from the bone marrow into the blood vessels and thus maintain the number of platelets in circulation. In recent years, patients with infection, sepsis or COVID-19 in particular have been studied and the interplay between platelets and the coagulation cascade has been analyzed using various methods. In addition to platelet immunophenotyping by flow cytometry, the focus is on imaging methods, in which the formation, stability and dissolution of thrombi are recorded over time and detected at a single cell level. Algorithms will use artificial intelligence to automate image analysis and further decipher the underlying dynamics.

Projects by Harald Schulze: P03, P08

Institute of Experimental Biomedicine
University Hospital Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg,
Germany

harald.schulze@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.platelets.eu/biomed/schulze/

Prof. Dr. David Stegner

Professor (W2) for Vascular Imaging

David Stegner studied biochemistry at the University of Bayreuth and received his Ph.D. in Experimental Biomedicine from the University of Würzburg in 2011. In 2016 he became junior research group leader at the Institute for Experimental Biomedicine and since 2021 he is associate professor for Vascular Imaging at the Rudolf Virchow Center in Würzburg. His research focuses on the mechanisms of thrombo-inflammation and the interaction between platelets and immune cells in various diseases, such as ischaemic stroke or liver inflammation. Prof. Stegner’s laboratory uses advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques, such as multiphoton intra-vital microscopy and light-sheet fluorescence microscopy in combination with transgenic mouse models and antibodies to visualize platelet interactions in inflammatory processes.

Projects by David Stegner: P06, P07

Rudolf Virchow Center
University of Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D15
97080 Würzburg
Germany

david.stegner@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.platelets.eu/biomed/stegner/

Prof. Dr. Alma Zernecke-Madsen
Professor (W3) and Chair of Experimental Biomedicine II

Prof. Zernecke-Madsen studied medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, where she also completed her Doctoral Thesis (2004). After postdoctoral fellowships at the University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen (2004-2009) and the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (2007-2008), she become Heisenberg fellow and Junior Research Group Leader at the Rudolf-Virchow-Center of the University Würzburg (2009-2012). After an Assistant Professorship at the Technische Universität München (TUM, 2012-2013), she is now Chair of the Institute of Experimental Biomedicine II of the University Hospital Würzburg since 2014. Prof. Zernecke-Madsen’s laboratory is interested in vascular inflammation, including the cross-talk of platelets with immune and vascular cells, and the role of immune cells in cardiovascular diseases with a focus on atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction.

Projects by Alma Zernecke-Madsen: P02

Institute of Experimental Biomedicine
University of Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2 / D16
97080 Würzburg
Germany

zernecke_a@ukw.de
https://www.ukw.de/forschung-lehre/institut-fuer-experimentelle-biomedizin/experimentelle-biomedizin-lehrstuhl-ii/experimentelle-biomedizin-lehrstuhl-ii/

Administration

Kerstin Siegmann

RTG 3190

Kerstin Siegmann is a trained foreign language correspondent and worked for several years as a secretary in a non-profit organization. She gained further professional experience as a management assistant in the IT-industry and in the purchasing department of a diagnostics company before she joined the Chair of Experimental Biomedicine I in 2014 as office assistant. She provides administrative support to the institute management, focusing on externally funded research projects.

Universitätsklinikum Würzburg
Universität Würzburg

Josef-Schneider-Str. 2, Building D15
97080 Würzburg

Phone: +49 931-31 81457
Email: siegmann_k@ukw.de

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