Robert Szulcek

Department of Physiology

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Robert Szulcek
Professor of Physiology

Dr. Robert Szulcek is Professor of Physiology in the department of Physiology at the Charitè - Universitätsmedizin in Berlin (Germany). He is a trained biomedical engineer that specialized in vascular cell biology and translational research during his PhD at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA) and the University Medical Center in Leiden (the Netherlands). His group develops functional in vitro disease models that simulate certain aspects of the complex cell micro-environment of the pulmonary vasculature. These models are designed to identify molecular, structural, and functional abnormalities in primary pulmonary vascular cells from patients with respiratory diseases. His research focuses on pulmonary hypertension (PH) a multi-faceted and highly heterogeneous disease condition clinically defined by an increased mean pulmonary artery pressure. In multiple translational research projects, responses of the pulmonary vascular endothelium to biomechanical, biophysical, and biochemical stimulation as well as cell-matrix and cell-blood interactions are being investigated. The aim is to identify specific cellular dysfunctions and miss-adaptations that can help to advance diagnosis, treatment, and therapy monitoring.

Publications

In Vitro Microfluidic Disease Model to Study Whole Blood-Endothelial Interactions and Blood Clot Dynamics in Real-Time

1Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Amsterdam UMC, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences (ACS), 2BIOS Lab-on-a-Chip group, University of Twente, 3Applied Stem Cell Technologies Group, University of Twente, 4Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, Amsterdam UMC, VU University Medical Center, 5Institute of Physiology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, 6German Heart Center

JoVE 61068

 Immunology and Infection