Research Group PD Dr. Buitrago Molina / Prof. Dr. Hardtke-Wolenski
The research group focuses on regeneration and precision medicine in liver and intestinal diseases, as well as the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and regeneration of the liver.
Welcome to the research group of PD Dr. Buitrago Molina and Prof. Dr. Hardtke-Wolenski. Here we would like to give you an insight into the topics of our research group. We also introduce our staff and publications. The research group is working on questions of regeneration and precision medicine in liver and intestinal diseases, as well as the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and regeneration of the liver.
Autophagy (or autophagocytosis) is the natural, regulatory mechanism of cells that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components. It enables the orderly breakdown and recycling of cellular components. Previously characterised as an initial catabolic pathway induced as a form of protection against starvation, it is now increasingly clear that autophagy also plays important roles in the homeostasis of non-starving cells and in regeneration. Defects in autophagy have been linked to various human diseases, including cancer. This has led to increased interest in the modulation of autophagy as a potential therapy.
In some diseases, autophagy has been seen as an adaptive stress response that promotes cell survival; in others, however, it appears to favour cell death and disease. In the extreme case of starvation, the degradation of cellular components promotes cellular survival by maintaining cellular energy levels. The growing interest in and immense potential of autophagy is evident, among other things, from the fact that Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi received the Nobel Prize in 2016 for his work in this field.
We are very interested in translational research. The main focus of our work is on liver and bowel diseases. For the liver, in addition to autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and our model of experimental murine AIH (emAIH), this includes, in particular, models for autophagy deficiency and hepatic regeneration in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, we are also taking into account the growing clinical significance of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and are also looking at autoimmunity in other organ systems such as the pancreas and thus type 1 diabetes.
The combination of techniques from molecular biology and immunology makes it possible to produce antigen-specific T cells for adoptive T cell therapy. Normal T cells (from a patient) are equipped with the respective antigen-specific receptors and thus enabled to recognise target cells. In addition to its own endogenous T-cell receptor, the T-cell then has a further chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which gives the T-cell the new antigen specificity.
A CAR consists of three components: (1) an extracellular, antigen-binding antibody fragment (scFv), which determines the antigen specificity; (2) a hinge and transmembrane part that anchors the CAR in the T cell membrane and ensures sufficient distance to the cell to exclude steric hindrance; (3) the intracellular signalling domains to translate the signal of the scFv into an action of the cell.
So far, only tumour-specific CARs that target CD19 on B-cell leukaemias have found their way into clinical application. In contrast to these effector CAR T cells, which are designed to kill tumour cells, we primarily deal with mechanisms of immune tolerance. In particular, regulatory T cells (Tregs) are the central building block of many projects. In the field of CAR technology, we work closely with the Noyan lab
Further information
You can find the current status of our scientific publications at PubMed.
Research Group
PD Dr. Laura Elisa Buitrago Molina
buitrago.laura@mh-hannoer.de
Prof. Dr. Matthias Hardtke-Wolenski
wolenski.matthias@mh-hannover.de
Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
Klinik für Gastroenterologie, Hepatologie, Infektiologie und Endokrinologie
OE6810
Gebäude J11, Ebene 1, Raum 1390
Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1
30625 Hannover
Telefon +49 511 532-9513
Fax +49 511 532-6992
- Dr. Ana-Clara Davalos-Misslitz
- Celina Hendriks (PhD student)
- Ziting Zhao (PhD student)
- Ze-xuan Shi (PhD student)
- Konstantinos Iordanidis (BTA)
- Maren Lieber (MTA)
We are delighted to announce that the following individuals have successfully completed their doctorates and have been honored for their outstanding achievements:
- Dr. Janine Dywicki (summa cum laude)
- Dr. Tom Pieper (summa cum laude)
- Dr. Michel Tenspolde (Award for best Masterthesis and summa cum laude)
- Dr. Katharina Zimmermann (summa cum laude)
We thank the following people for their contribution to the success of this working group:
- Dr. Sandra Bufe
- Dr. Katja Fischer
- Dr. Ümran Karsli-Ünal
- Dr. Valerie Sätzler
- Dr. Nadja Seltrecht
- Akram Althanoon (MSc)
- Dorothee Römermann (Dipl. Biol)
- Maike Stahlhut (Dipl. Biol.)
- Maike Hagedorn (MTA)
- Martin Hapke (BTA)
- Artur Wilms (BTA)