Professorship Translational Research in T & H
Professor Ulrich Walter, MD
Scientific Director of the CTH
As of January 2012, the full professorship “Translational Research in Thrombosis and Hemostasis” which is associated with the position of Scientific Director of the CTH, heads the center of thrombosis and hemostasis divisions of research, teaching and patient care. Hemostasis is an intricate system which balances maintaining blood in a fluid state with prevention of minor and major blood loss in the event of vascular injury. Thrombosis is pathologically increased blood coagulation which often leads to serious diseases such as venous thromboembolism (VTE), myocardial infarction, stroke and others. An impaired and diminished hemostasis and blood coagulation causes mild and serious bleeding disorders. This professorship and the CTH jointly address both physiological hemostasis as well its pathological alterations which may present as major common (i.e. VTE), or rare, inherited, and aquired diseases, all of which may occur at any age. The aims of this professorship, and also those of the CTH, the University Medical Center Mainz, and the BMBF, are to create an attractive environment for clinical research, improved career opportunities for young scientists, and high-quality patient-oriented research. This will be achieved in close collaboration with other professorships, junior groups and colleagues of the CTH, as well as with other clinical and basic science institutions of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. Aided by long-term academic experience and research funded by the DFG and the BMBF (see other information U. Walter), this professorship will bring unsolved questions concerning the pathogenesis and therapy of thrombosis/hemostasis diseases to our experimental laboratories. We will particularly investigate preclinical (including human-cellular interaction) models of diseases in thrombosis and hemostasis, with the aim of rapidly adapting important laboratory results to clinical research for the improvement of diagnosis and/or therapy. Many research projects are carried out by independent scientific groups as well as funded projects of this professorship. My own special interest since many years has been the fundamental characterization of human platelets and their interaction with other human cells using functional, biochemical, proteomic and systems biology approaches. With the working hypothesis that platelets and the hemostasis system are circulating sentinels of vascular integritry we want to improve the diagnostics and therapeutics of many still poorly-understood diseases in thrombosis and hemostasis with the following motto:
Basic and clinical research to benefit patients of all ages and in all situations.