
Department of Dermatology
Position: Associate Professor
ORCID: 0000-0002-5645-2036
T +43 1 40400 73735
leopold.eckhart@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Apoptosis; Autophagy; Caspases; Endonucleases; Epidermis; Evolution, Molecular; Genomics; Keratinocytes; Keratins; Skin; Skin Diseases
Research group(s)
- Skin Biology - Leopold Eckhart
Head: Leopold Eckhart
Research Area: • Barrier function of the skin • Enzymatic control of epidermal cornification • Evolution and comparative genomics of the skin and skin appendages • Mechanisms of programmed cell death • Autophagy in tissue homeostasis and stress responses
Members:
Research interests
- Barrier function of the skin
- Evolution of the skin
- Programmed cell death
- Autophagy
- Genomics
Techniques, methods & infrastructure
- Comparative genomics
- Targeted gene deletions in animal models
- In vitro models of human skin
- Molecular biological, biochemical and immunohistochemical techniques
Grants
- Molecular evolution of skin appendages (2023)
Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Einzelprojekt
Principal Investigator - Evolution of epidermal transglutamination (2019)
Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Stand-Alone Projects
Principal Investigator - Characterization of age-related protein accumulation in autophagy-deficient neurons. (2015)
Source of Funding: Herzfelder'sche Familienstiftung,
Principal Investigator - Evolution of epidermal cornification proteins (2015)
Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Stand-Alone Projects
Principal Investigator - Molecular evolution of the epidermis in amniotes (2011)
Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Stand-Alone Projects
Principal Investigator - The role of DNase1L2 in epidermal DNA degradation (2008)
Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Stand-Alone Projects
Principal Investigator
Selected publications
- Carron M, Sachslehner AP, et al. (2024) Evolutionary origin of Hoxc13-dependent skin appendages in amphibians. Nature Communications 15(1), 2328. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46373-x.
- Feng, S. et al. (2020) Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics. Nature, 587(7833), pp. 252-257. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2873-9.
- Strasser, B. et al. (2014) Evolutionary origin and diversification of epidermal barrier proteins in amniotes. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 31(12), pp.3194-3205. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu251.
- Fischer, H. et al. (2011) ‘Essential Role of the Keratinocyte-Specific Endonuclease DNase1L2 in the Removal of Nuclear DNA from Hair and Nails’, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 131(6), pp. 1208–1215. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2011.13.
- Eckhart, L. et al. (2008) Identification of reptilian genes encoding hair keratin-like proteins suggests a new scenario for the evolutionary origin of hair. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(47), pp.18419-18423. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0805154105.