"Failure is not an option": A lab visit to Prof. Friedemann Kiefer

Prof. Kiefer, what scientific topic are you working on right now? My group is investigating how lymphatic vessels form and how they are preserved in a functional state. During development, the lymphatic vessel system adopts a characteristic structure and we would like to understand, which molecular mechanisms are responsible for the formation of the prototypic shape of this vessel tree. Which are the regulatory mechanisms that ensure the vessel system is perfectly adapted to the organs it serves' A second focus of our research is tissue oxygenation, here we want to visualize if a tissue suffers from insufficient oxygen supply. A lack of oxygen or hypoxia may be caused by the occlusion of a vessel during a stroke or a heart attack, for example. Tissues react to this insult with an inflammatory response, the immigration of immune cells, which ultimately may lead to massive damage. However, the exact mechanistic link between hypoxia and inflammation remains to be investigated. How do immune cells position themselves relative to the hypoxic core? What are the consequences for the now ensuing regenerative processes' We look into these questions using a number of imaging modalities.