Prof. Dr. Bernd Fleischmann

Disorders of the cardiovascular system are the most frequent cause of death in the western hemisphere. Our group aims to deepen the physiological understanding of both, the developing and the diseased heart. Since pathologically altered cells can recapitulate gene expression and regulatory pathways of the early embryonic heart, we are currently deciphering the most essential physiological function i.e. initiation and regulation of the spontaneous activity. For this purpose molecular, cell biological and physiological techniques are combined with transgenic mouse and embryonic stem cell models. Our group is also interested in improving heart function after an irreversible loss of heart cells. For this purpose, we are currently evaluating the functional benefit of transplanting embryonic heart cells as well as embryonic- or adult stem cells into the infarcted mouse heart.