PI: Slaven Crnkovic
Focus: Smooth muscle cells in the pulmonary vasculature represent a heterogeneous cell population with a substantial potential to alter their behaviour depending on external cues. Some of these changes are linked and contribute to pathologic processes in several chronic lung diseases. Using the insights and knowhow gained previously within the framework of Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Lung Vascular Research, our team is working to gain a deeper understanding how this diversity and plasticity is altered in disease state and molecular mechanisms that regulate these changes. To achieve this, we use a combination of molecular, cellular and phenotypic assays and lean heavily on state-of-the-art technologies with single cell resolution capability, including transcriptome analysis and multispectral imaging.
Networking: There is a continuous close collaboration with other members of the Otto Loewi Research Center, including Grazyna Kwapiszewska (Vascular remodelling) and Leigh Marsh (Immune cell interaction), and other researchers of the Medical University of Graz, including Gregor Gorkiewicz (Diagnostic & Research Institute of Pathology), Jörg Lindenmann (Division of Thoracic and Hyperbaric Surgery), Senka Holzer (Division of Cardiology). International collaboration partners include Vera Krymskaya (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Saverio Bellusci and Marek Bartkuhn (Justus Liebig University, Germany), Vinicio de Jesus Perez (Stanford University, USA), Miranda Sertic (University of Zagreb, Croatia).
