Prof. Dr. Katrin Schäfer
Department of Cardiology, Cardiology I
Faculty of Medicine
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Langenbeckstraße 1 | 55131 Mainz
Vascular phenotype and fibrosis control by phosphatases
The project studies phosphatases as critical regulators of damage-induced activation and differentiation events as well as vascular fibrosis. We will use primary human and mouse endothelial cells and fibroblasts as well as reporter cell and mouse lines to identify fibrosis-related interaction partners and substrates of phosphatases of the PTP1B family, focussing on TGFβ1 and chronic oxidative stress. We will also determine how PTP1B controls the nuclear export and stability of transcription factors linked with endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and systematically check for TGFβ1 regulated phosphatases involved in vascular damage control.