Science
The Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1366 "Vascular Control of Organ Function" pursues a concerted effort aimed at systematically studying gatekeeper and regulator functions of organotypically differentiated endothelial and mural cells during development and regeneration (Research Area A), homeostasis and dysfunction (Research Area B) as well as during inflammation and tumor progression (Research Area C). We will thereby (i) unravel at high resolution mechanistic details of the molecular repertoire of organotypically differentiated cells of the vessel wall all the way to the single cell level, (ii) elucidate the multidirectional molecular crosstalk of vessel wall cells with the cells of their microenvironment as well as systemic effects controlled by organotypic vasculatures, (iii) dissect niche functions of organotypic vasculatures on stem cells and their progeny, and (iv) unravel the fate maps of different organotypic vasculatures in health and disease.
The CRC1366 takes a leading role in the emerging field of "Angioscience” research, i.e., the molecular and functional analysis of vascular control mechanisms of organ function. Considering the involvement of vascular dysfunction in numerous chronic and life-threatening diseases, the better molecular understanding of organotypic vasculatures will lay the scientific foundation to pave the way towards novel angiotargeted therapies to treat hitherto intractable diseases.