Regenerative Medicine of Cardiovascular Diseases

• Prof. Dr. Alessandra Moretti
  Chair of Regenerative Medicine of Cardiovascular Diseases, group leader
• Dr. Tatjana Dorn
  Senior scientist (developmental biology, lineage decision)
• Jessica Haas
  Postdoc
• Maria Teresa De Angelis
  PhD, postdoc
• Gianluca Santamaria
  PhD, postdoc
• Dr. Ralf Dirschinger
  Physician scientist
• Dr. Mark Lachmann
  Physician scientist
• Dr. med. univ. Christine Schneider
  Physician scientist
• Dorota Zawada
  PhD student
• Fangfang Zhang
  PhD student
• Anna Meier
  PhD student
• Christina Scherb
  Technician
• Birgit Campbell
  Technician

Scientific Projects:
We regularly offer projects for diploma, PhD and M.D. students.


Third-Party Funding:

• European Research Council
• German Research Foundation
• German Centre for Cardiovascular Research, Munich Heart

Alliance

• Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation

Original work

Moretti A, Fonteyne L, Giesert F, Hoppmann P, Meier AB, Bozoglu T, Baehr A, Schneider CM, Sinnecker D, Klett K, Fröhlich T, Rahman FA, Haufe T, Sun S, Jurisch V, Kessler B, Hinkel R, Dirschinger R, Martens E, Jilek C, Graf A, Krebs S, Santamaria G, Kurome M, Zakhartchenko V, Campbell B, Voelse K, Wolf A, Ziegler T, Reichert S, Lee S, Flenkenthaler F, Dorn T, Jeremias I, Blum H, Dendorfer A, Schnieke A, Krause S, Walter MC, Klymiuk N, Laugwitz KL, Wolf E, Wurst W, Kupatt C (2020). Somatic gene editing ameliorates skeletal and cardiac muscle failure in pig and human models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Nat Med 26(2):207-214

Guo Y, Dorn T, Kühl SJ, Linnemann A, Rothe M, Pfister AS, Vainio S, Laugwitz KL, Moretti A*, Kühl M* (2019). The Wnt inhibitor Dkk1 is required for maintaining the normal cardiac differentiation program in Xenopus laevis. Dev Biol. 449:1-13.

Dorn T, Kornherr J, Parrotta EI, Zawada D, Ayetey H, Santamaria G, Iop L, Mastantuono E, Sinnecker D, Goedel A, Dirschinger RJ, My I, Laue S, Bozoglu T, Baarlink C, Ziegler T, Graf E, Hinkel R, Cuda G, Kääb S, Grace AA, Grosse R, Kupatt C, Meitinger T, Smith AG, Laugwitz KL, Moretti A. (2018) Interplay of cell-cell contacts and RhoA/MRTF-A signaling regulates cardiomyocyte identity. EMBO J 37:pii: e98133.

Chen Z, Xian W, Bellin M, Dorn T, Tian Q, Goedel A, Dreizehnter L, Schneider CM, Ward-van Oostwaard D, Ng JK, Hinkel R, Pane LS, Mummery CL, Lipp P, Moretti A, Laugwitz KL, Sinnecker D. (2017) Subtype-specific promoter-driven action potential imaging for precise disease modelling and drug testing in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Eur Heart J 38:292-301.

Rocchetti M, Sala L, Dreizehnter L, Crotti L, Sinnecker D, Mura M, Pane LS, Altomare C, Torre E, Mostacciuolo G, Severi S, Porta A, De Ferrari GM, George AL Jr, Schwartz PJ, Gnecchi M, Moretti A, Zaza A. (2017) Elucidating arrhythmogenic mechanisms of long-QT syndrome CALM1-F142L mutation in patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Cardiovasc Res 113:531-541.

Gramlich M, Pane LS, Zhou Q, Chen Z, Murgia M, Schötterl S, Goedel A, Metzger K, Brade T, Parrotta E, Schaller M, Gerull B, Thierfelder L, Aartsma-Rus A, Labeit S, Atherton JJ, McGaughran J, Harvey RP, Sinnecker D, Mann M, Laugwitz KL, Gawaz MP, Moretti A. (2015) Antisense-mediated exon skipping: a therapeutic strategy for titin-based dilated cardiomyopathy. EMBO Mol Med 7:562-76.

Dorn T, Goedel A, Lam JT, Haas J, Tian Q, Herrmann F, Bundschu K, Dobreva G, Schiemann M, Dirschinger R, Guo Y, Kühl SJ, Sinnecker D, Lipp P, Laugwitz KL, Kühl M, Moretti A. (2015). Direct nkx2-5 transcriptional repression of isl1 controls cardiomyocyte subtype identity. Stem Cells 33(4):1113-29.

Jung CB, Moretti A, Schnitzler MM, Iop L, Storch U, Bellin M, Dorn T, Ruppenthal S, Pfeiffer S, Goedel A, Dirschinger RJ, Seyfarth M, Lam JT, Sinnecker D, Gudermann T, Lipp P & Laugwitz K-L (2012). Dantrolene rescues arrhythmogenic RYR2 defect in a patient-specific stem cell model of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. EMBO Mol. Med. 3:180-191.

Moretti A, Bellin M, Welling A, Jung CB, Lam JT, Bott-Flügel L, Dorn T, Gödel A, Höhnke C, Hofmann F, Seyfarth M, Sinnecker D, Schömig A & Laugwitz K-L (2010). Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell models for long-QT syndrome. N. Engl. J. Med. 363: 1397-409.

Qyang Y, Martin-Puig S, Chiravuri M, Chen S, Xu H, Bu L, Jiang X, Lin L, Granger A, Moretti A, Caron L, Wu X, Clarke J, Taketo MM, Laugwitz K-L, Moon RT, Gruber P, Evans SM, Ding S & Chien KR (2007). The renewal and differentiation of Isl1+ cardiovascular progenitors are controlled by a Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Cell Stem Cell 1: 1-15.

Moretti A, Caron, L, Nakano, A, Lam, JT, Chen, Y, Qyang, Y, Sasaki, M, Yunfu, S, Evans, S, Laugwitz, K-L & Chien KR (2006). Multipotent embryonic isl1+ progenitor cells lead to cardiac, smooth muscle, and endothelial cell diversification. Cell 127: 1151-1166.

Laugwitz K-L, Moretti A, Lam J, Gruber P, Yinhong Chen, Woodard S, Lin L-Z, Cai C-L, Lu M, Reth M, Platoshyn O, Yuan J, Evans S & Chien KR (2005). Postnatal isl1+ cardioblasts enter fully differentiated cardiomyocyte lineages. Nature 433: 647-653.

Book chapters, Reviews and Editorials

Sinnecker D, Moretti A. (2018) Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes: Towards Personalized Therapeutic Strategies? In: Dierk Thomas, Carol Ann Remme (Eds.) Channelopathies in Heart Disease. Springer International Publishing, ISBN 978-3-319-77811-2.

Sinnecker D, Laugwitz KL, Moretti A. (2014) Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for drug development and toxicity testing. Pharmacol Ther 143:246-52.

Moretti A, Laugwitz KL, Dorn T, Sinnecker D, Mummery C. (2013) Pluripotent stem cell models of human heart disease. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med 3. pii: a014027.

Evans SM, Moretti A & Laugwitz KL (2010). MicroRNAs in a cardiac loop: progenitor or myocyte? Dev. Cell 19: 787-8.

Laugwitz K-L, Moretti A, Nakano A & Chien KR (2008). Islet-1 Cardiovascular Progenitors: A single source for heart lineages? Development 135: 193-205.

Chien KR, Moretti A & Laugwitz K-L (2004). ES cells to the Rescue. Science 306: 239-240.