Speaker

Prof. Dr. Angela Relógio, MSH Medical School Hamburg

Biosketch:

Angela Relógio (AR) completed her undergraduate studies in Technological Physics Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon. She advanced her academic journey by enrolling in the international PhD program at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, earning a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. Post-PhD, AR conducted research at the Institute for Theoretical Biology (ITB) at Humboldt University Berlin and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where she also habilitated in molecular biology and bioinformatics.
From 2014 to 2023, AR led the Systems Biology of Cancer research group at Charité. Since April 2020, she has been a Professor of Systems Medicine at MSH Medical School Hamburg. Her research group takes an interdisciplinary approach to study the molecular interactions of the circadian clock with clock-controlled genes and their implications for diseases. She collaborates extensively with both national and international colleagues to explore how the internal biological clock influences disease and to develop chronotherapy—optimizing drug intake times based on circadian rhythms.
Her teaching spans interdisciplinary subjects in systems and molecular medicine and bioinformatics, aiming to equip the next generation of physicians with the skills to manage extensive genetic data and advance individualized diagnostics and therapies. She is a member of several scientific societies and editorial boards, serving as a reviewer for numerous journals and funding organizations. Additionally, she participates in international career symposia and mentoring activities, guiding students in their career planning. AR is committed to advancing the field of circadian medicine, bridging basic and clinical research for the benefit of patients.

Prof. Dr. Eran Elinav, DKFZ Heidelberg, Weizmann Institute, Israel

Biosketch:

Prof. Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor heading the Department of Systems Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and the director of the Microbiome & Cancer division, National German Cancer Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany. His labs at the Weizmann Institute and DKFZ focus on deciphering the molecular basis of host-microbiome interactions and their effects on health and disease, with a goal of personalizing medicine and nutrition. Dr. Elinav completed his medical doctor’s (MD) degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Hadassah Medical Center summa cum laude, followed by a clinical internship, residency in internal medicine, and a physician-scientist position at the Tel Aviv Medical Center Gastroenterology institute. He received a PhD in immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Elinav has published more than 250 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals, including major recent discoveries related to the effects of host genetics, innate immune function and environmental factors, such as dietary composition and timing, on the intestinal microbiome and its propensity to drive multi-factorial disease. His honors include multiple awards for academic excellence including the Claire and Emmanuel G. Rosenblatt award from the American Physicians for Medicine, the Alon Foundation award, the Rappaport prize for biomedical research, the Levinson award for basic science research, the Landau prize. He is an honorary guest professor, University of Science & Technology of China; a senior fellow at the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research (CIFAR); an elected member, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO); an elected fellow, American Academy of Microbiology; and an international scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Prof. Iris Shai, PhD, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Israel

Biosketch:

Iris Shai, RD, MPH, Ph.D., is a Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), an Adjunct Professor at Harvard University & Honorary Professor at Leipzig University, Germany. At BGU, Shai is the Chair of the International Center of Health Innovation & Nutrition, Chair of the Dr. Herman Kessel Cathedra of Epidemiology, and former 6-year BGU President's Deputy on the advancement of women in academia. As member of the Government Health Ministry Committee for Healthy Nutrition Regulations in Israel, Shai propelled a drastic reform in food labelling. 
Shai’s focuses are precision nutrition, sustainable foods, plant-based protein foodtech, green-Mediterranean diet, food systems to combat changing climate, and environmental food pollutants addressing the effect on human health, in particular - on cardiometabolic risk, aging, cognition, epigenetics and microbiome. A key attribute in Shai’s work are cross-border collaborations and the lion share of her breakthrough research was achieved through leading US-European-Israeli research consortium .
Following her Fulbright fellowship at Harvard, where she focused on traditional and non-traditional biomarkers for cardio-vascular disease (CVD ), Shai led, with her international research team, many dietary Intervention – Randomized Controlled  trials. These clinical trials serve in nutritional guidelines in obesity, cardiology, diabetes, and fatty liver diseases worldwide.
Currently, Shai lives in Boston, working    as a faculty in the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. Her main work relates to large-scale sustainable food trials in the US and exploring the effect of environment and food pollutants on human health. Shai teaches in Harvard the course of “Precision Nutrition: Dietary intervention studies and nutrition omics”.

MinDirig'in Katharina Peter, Head of Department of Technologies in Lifesciences, BMBF, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

Prof. Dr. Klaus Pantel, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Biosketch:

Prof. Dr. Klaus Pantel is Director of the Institute of Tumor Biology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. The Institute is part of the Center for Experimental Medicine and the University Cancer Center (UCCH). Prof. Pantel graduated from the University of Cologne in 1986 and completed his dissertation in 1987 in the field of mathematical models of hematopoiesis. After his postdoctoral training in the USA at Wayne State Universi-ty, Detroit, where he conducted research on hematopoietic stem cell regulation, he spent 10 years at the Institute of Immunology at the University of Munich, where he habilitated in 1995 in the field of experimental immunology and immunotherapies. Prof. Pantel's pioneering work in the field of micrometastasis and liquid biopsy (analysis of tumor components in the blood, e.g. circulating tumor cells and circulating nucleic acids (ctDNA, microRNAs)) of solid tumors is reflected in more than 600 publications (h-factor 145) in excellent high-ranking biomedical and sci-entific journals (incl. NEJM, Lancet, Nature Journals, Cancer Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Discovery, PNAS, JCO, JNCI, Cancer Res.). His research work has been recognized by the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award 2010, the German Cancer Award 2010, and four ERC Grants, among others. He is the Founder and current President of the European Liquid Biopsy Society (www.elbs.eu) and the Scientific Coordinator/Lead-PI of the EU consortia PANCAID (https://pancaid-project.eu/) and GUIDE-MRD (www. www.guidemrd-horizon.eu/).

Prof. Dr. Philip Rosenstiel, IKMB, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel

Biosketch:

Philip Rosenstiel studied medicine in Kiel and Boston, graduating in 2001. During his studies, he received BMEP and Studienstiftung research scholarships, which allowed him to conduct research in mouse genetics and gene therapy at Patsy Nishina's lab at Jackson Lab, Maine, and Jeffrey Isner's lab at Tufts University. Rosenstiel then joined the Department of Internal Medicine in Kiel for medical training and postdoctoral work in Internal Medicine and Mucosal Immunology. In 2007, he became an Associate Professor of Evolutionary and Molecular Medicine, and since 2016, he has been the Chair and Professor of Clinical Molecular Biology at Kiel University. 2018 he was awarded with an SH Excellence Chair for Clinical Translational Research.

Rosenstiel's research focuses on systems immunology and genomic techniques, for biomarker discovery and therapeutic innovation in chronic inflammatory diseases. He has been a key figure in major research initiatives, including DFG Cluster of Excellence Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation, the Horizon 2020 SYSCID network and the BMBF e:Med iTREAT consortium. His research on inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) has revealed some insights into the crosstalk of the intestinal epithelium with the luminal microbiota for licensing immune responses. Recently, his work focuses on epigenetic marks as long-term switches of chronicity in IBD. He has also contributed to developing therapies such as IL-6 transsignaling inhibition and bioactive Trp metabolites in IBD. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he became founding member of the DeCOI consortium, contributing to prediction of severe disease outcomes by single-cell transcriptomics approaches.

Prof. Dr. Tanja Zeller, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Biosketch:

Tanja Zeller is DZHK professor for Cardiovascular Systems Medicine and Molecular Translation at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). At the UKE, she has been leading the research group “Molecular Cardiology, Genomics and Systems medicine” since 2014. In addition, she has been speaker of the University Center of Cardiovascular Science (UCCS) since 2021 and holds the position of Chair of the Gender Equality Board of the Faculty. Prof. Zeller´s research is dedicated on the systems-oriented investigation of cardiovascular diseases, focusing on the discovery and application of molecular biomarkers. She has implemented the biorepository and biomarker laboratory for epidemiological cohort studies within the framework of national and international projects, such as the Hamburg City Health Study and the MORGAM/BiomarCaRE Consortium.
Throughout her career, Prof. Zeller has coordinated numerous national and international research projects and consortia including the ERA-CVD PREMED-CAD and ERA-PerMed consortia, the e:Med symAtrial Junior Research Group and the e:Med coNfirm network. She is the principal investigator of the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) and member of the working group „Common and Complex Diseases“ of the EU´s 1+ Million Genomes-Initiative. She received several scientific awards including the Albert Fraenkel Award of the German Society of Cardiology and was the speaker of the e:Med project committee (2016 - 2020), the DZHK omics Group and the DZHK professors (since 2015), and is organizer of initiatives such as e:Med Summer School on Systems Medicine in Cardiovascular Disease.
Prof. Zeller´s contributions to cardiovascular research and her commitment to advancing gender equality in academia underscore her influential role in the scientific community
 

Prof. Dr. med. Florian Tran
Professor of Pathophysiology of Chronic Inflammation 

Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology
Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel
and
I. Medical Department
University Hospital Schleswig Holstein · Campus Kiel

Florian Tran studied Medicine in Kiel and London (UK). After his medical degree in 2016 he started working as a Clinician Scientist in the Departments for Internal Medicine I and in the Systems Immunology Group at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB), both at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel. His clinical and scientific focus is Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) as a complex immune-mediated disorder. After two years of Else-Kröner Memorial Fellowship he got appointed as a junior professor for Pathophysiology in Chronic Inflammation at the Kiel University. His current research interest is on heterogeneity and dynamics of immune signatures in IBD tissue.
 

Prof. Dr. Konrad Aden
Else Kröner Clinician Scientist Professor of Gastroenterology and Metabolomics,

 Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology
Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel
and
I. Medical Department
University Hospital Schleswig Holstein · Campus Kiel

Biosketch:

Konrad Aden studied Medicine in Kiel, St. Louis (MO, USA) and Bern (Switzerland). After his medical degree in 2011 he started his clinical rotation at I. Medical Department, University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Kiel. From 2012-2014 we worked as PostDoc at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (Kiel University). Since 2018 he is board certified Gastroenterologist with focus in IBD and works as Senior Clinician at the I. Medical Department, University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Kiel. Since 2022 he is Else-Kröner Clinician Scientist Professor for Gastroenterology and Metabolomics. His research focus is on the immunometabolism of chronic inflammation

Prof. Dr. Samuel Huber, University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf

Biosketch:

Prof. Dr. med. Samuel Huber is director of the I. Department of Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Germany, since 2019.
His background is in the field of Gastroenterology and Immunobiology. He did his M.D. thesis in the lab of Prof. M. Blessing at the University of Mainz. During his thesis, he focused on the role of TGF-beta1 for the emergence and function of Foxp3+ TREG in vivo (Huber et al. JI 2004). In 2006 he obtained the board certification for Medicine and started his residency at the I. Department of Medicine (Gastroenter-ology), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (chairman: Prof. A.W. Lohse). During his medical training in the hospital, he also continued his research work on regulatory T cells in the lab of Prof. Dr. Christoph Schramm focusing on the role of other TGF-beta family members (Huber et al. JI 2009; Lueth, Huber et al. JCI 2008). From 2008 – 2012, he did his postdoctoral training at Richard A. Flavell’s lab at the Department of Immunobiology, School of Medicine, Yale University. The main focus of his postdoc was to identify ways to control TH17 cells during inflammation and carcinogenesis in vivo (Huber et al. Immunity 2011; Esplugues, Huber et al. Nature 2011; Huber et al. Nature 2012). After finishing his post-doctoral training, he completed his medical fellowship, obtained the board certification for Internal Medi-cine at the end of 2015, and in parallel established his own lab at the I. Department of Medicine, Univer-sity Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. In 2013 he became Head of the Section of Molecular Immunol-ogy and Gastroenterology. Since 2019 he serves as director of the I. Department of Medicine together with Ansgar W. Lohse. The main focus of his lab is to study mechanisms controlling immune responses during inflammation and carcinogenesis using mouse models and analyzing human samples (Gagliani et al. Nature 2015; Pelczar et al. Science 2016; Kempski et al. Gastroenterology 2020; Giannou et al. Im-munity 2023). His long-term aim is to identify new therapeutic targets for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer.
 

The circadian clock, our endogenous time-generating system, regulates behavioral, physiological, and cellular processes. Disruptions to this clock, such as those caused by shift work, jet lag, or genetic alterations, are associated with an increased risk of various diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Circadian medicine, the study of how time affects health and disease, has emerged as a promising approach to enhance health and performance and to optimize treatment timing. However, the potential of circadian medicine is limited by the lack of non-invasive tools for characterizing the circadian clock.
 To address this challenge, we developed TimeTeller, a non-invasive methodology to analyze circadian rhythms. Currently employed in various clinical studies, TimeTeller profiles circadian rhythms based on gene expression measurements. Through mathematical modeling and bioinformatics analysis, we derive predictions regarding optimal time windows for performance and treatment administration.
 By aligning an individual's circadian clock with optimal times for daily routines and incorporating personal health information across lifestyle, care, and research settings, we can improve physical and mental performance and enhance the effectiveness of certain therapies.

The mammalian intestine contains trillions of microbes, a community that is dominated by members of the domain Bacteria but also includes members of Archaea, Eukarya, and viruses. The vast repertoire of this microbiome functions in ways that benefit the host. The mucosal immune system co-evolves with the microbiota beginning at birth, acquiring the capacity to tolerate components of the community while maintaining the capacity to respond to invading pathogens. The gut microbiota is shaped and regulated by multiple factors including our genomic composition, the local intestinal niche and multiple environmental factors including our nutritional repertoire and bio-geographical location. Moreover, it has been recently highlighted that dysregulation of these genetic or environmental factors leads to aberrant host-microbiome interactions, ultimately predisposing to pathologies ranging from chronic inflammation, obesity, the metabolic syndrome and even cancer. We have identified various possible mechanisms participating in the reciprocal regulation between the host and the intestinal microbial ecosystem, and demonstrate that disruption of these factors, in mice and humans, lead to dysbiosis and susceptibility to common multi-factorial disease. Understanding the molecular basis of host-microbiome interactions may lead to development of new microbiome-targeting treatments.

This seminar will highlight groundbreaking findings from four recent Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) – DIRECT, CASCADE, CENTRAL, and DIRECT PLUS – exploring the significant impacts of lifestyle and dietary interventions on aging. The  2-year Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial (DIRECT) and  a 4-year follow-up (A Dietary Intervention- Randomized Controlled Trial (DIRECT) Study), compared the effects of dietary strategies on cardiometabolic risk and plaque regression. The 2-year CASCADE trial(The CArdiovasCulAr Diabetes & Ethanol (CASCADE) Trial), addressed the effect of moderate alcohol in type 2 diabetes. The  CENTRAL (Diet and Body Composition (CENTRAL)) whole-body MRI trial focused on dynamic of human-specific fat depots and fuel metabolism across dietary strategies. The DIRECT PLUS trial (Effects of Green-MED Diet Via the Gut-fat-brain Axis (DIRECT-PLUS)) explored the effect of the diet and specific high- polyphenols foods as Mankai on the gut-fat-brain axis. In this trial, new horizons were explored related to Autologous Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, brain atrophy attenuation, and epigenetics. The talk will discuss transformative effects of various dietary interventions to significantly reduce age-related health decline. The seminar will cover reductions in vascular stiffness, carotid atherosclerosis, and brain atrophy, emphasizing the role of diet and exercise in promoting cardiovascular and cognitive longevity. The lecture will discuss the crucial role of the gut microbiome in aging and how dietary patterns optimize its composition and will gain insights into epigenetic changes and their influence on biological aging, showcasing how interventions can attenuate the aging process beyond weight loss.

Liquid Biopsy has been defined as the analysis of tumor cells or products released from primary or metastatic tumor tissues into the blood or other body fluids. Over the past ten years, CTCs, ctDNA and extracellular vesicles have received enormous attention as new biomarkers and subject of translational research. In particular, CTC and ctDNA research has opened new avenues for a better understanding of tumor biology in cancer patients, including intra-patient heterogeneity and evolution towards resistance to therapy. Although both biomarkers are already used in numerous clinical trials, their clinical utility is still under investigation with first promising results. Clinical applications include early cancer detection, improved cancer staging, early detection of relapse, real-time monitoring of therapeutic efficacy and detection of therapeutic targets and resistance mechanisms. In particular, interventional clinical studies are required to demonstrate clinical utility of liquid biopsy as an important prerequisite for the introduction of this new diagnostic approach into clinical practice. Moreover, assay harmonization and standardization as conducted by international consortia like the European Liquid Biopsy Society (ELBS; www.elbs.eu) is essential. Here, I will discuss the potential and current challenges of liquid biopsy research for understanding human cancer biology and the implementation of this new diagnostic approach into clinical studies with emphasis on solid tumors.

Chronic inflammatory disease (e.g. Inflammatory Bowel Disease, rheumatoid Arthritis, etc.) are characterized by a systemic disease behavior requiring long-life pharmacological intervention. Despite the introduction of targeted therapies (e.g. anti-TNF, anti-IL12/23, etc.) the overall long-term remission rate is low and leads to frequent changes in drug therapy. Although several strategies are pursued to develop biomarker for individual therapy stratification, the path towards clinical implementation of molecular biomarker into routine medicine is still unclear. Within the “Molecular Inflammation Board on stage” we will discuss and exemplify in real-world IBD cases, how implementation of molecular medicine can be translated into patient care.

The field of systems medicine is transforming our understanding of cardiovascular diseases by integrating large-scale population data from cohort studies with innovative translational approaches. This interdisciplinary strategy enables the identification of novel biomarkers and molecular mechanisms underlying CVD development and progression, providing the basis for translation into clinical applications.
This lecture will provide an overview of our translational systems medicine approaches, ranging from the molecular identification of target molecules and their experimental characterization to digital strategies for clinical diagnostics. The talk will present the results of the e:Med Junior Research Group symAtrial on the biomarker long-chain acyl-carnitine, which has demonstrated arrhythmogenic potential and involvement in the development of atrial fibrillation. Moreover, data will be shared on the newest digital strategies for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and the steps toward exploitation and clinical application. These translational approaches are examples of how innovative research can bridge the gap between molecular discoveries and clinical practice, paving the way for more personalized diagnostics and treatments.