(Vienna, 08 May 2023) Dimitrios Tsiantoulas has taken up a §99-(5)-Assistant Professorship in Cardiovascular Immunology under the tenure-track model at the Clinical Institute of Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna as of the beginning of May 2023.
Tsiantoulas received a "Starting Grant" from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2022 with funding of 1.5 million euros for five years. The aim of the project "The B-MIracle" is to investigate the function of B lymphocytes in atherosclerosis and heart attacks.
Heart attacks continue to be the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. The main underlying cause of this catastrophic clinical manifestation is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which leads to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in large and medium size arteries. Atherosclerosis is initiated upon retention of LDL cholesterol in the arteries that triggers a chronic inflammatory response. The immune system plays a crucial role in the progression of atherosclerosis and the healing of the heart after a heart attack. We aim to map the landscape of the immune response in these settings and identify druggable targets with high translational value.
About Dimitrios Tsiantoulas
Dimitrios Tsiantoulas is a research group leader at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Vienna. He completed his PhD studies in the group of Christoph Binder at the Medical University of Vienna and at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. After graduation, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow, funded by the British Heart Foundation, in the group of Ziad Mallat at the University of Cambridge.