Heike Walles

Heike Walles (born Schönke , former Mertsching ; born October 1, 1962 in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg ) is a German biologist who has held the newly created chair for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University of Würzburg since 2009 . From 2004 to 2013 she was head of department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) in Stuttgart. In June 2010 Walles was appointed to the German Ethics Council.

Life

After graduating from the Obere Aar school center in Taunusstein in 1982, Walles studied biology first in Freiburg and finally at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen , which she graduated with a diploma. 1991–1994 followed his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute Martinsried with a thesis on viral heart diseases. In 2003 and 2004 Walles was the coordinator of the interdisciplinary "Tissue Engineering Network" at the Hannover Medical School ; As a group leader and later junior professor , she developed artificial tissue for heart valves and blood vessels .

In 2004 she moved to the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Bioprocess Engineering in Stuttgart, where she was head of the Cell Systems Department until March 2013.

In August 2009 Heike Walles was appointed to the newly established Chair for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Würzburg. In 2016 she was elected to the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).

She has been married to the surgeon Thorsten Walles since September 2009 .

Research priorities

Heike Walles develops processes for growing different types of tissue from the body's own human cells, which can be used in transplant medicine as well as for drug tests and cancer research. The reproduction targets bone tissue as well as skin or liver and takes place in so-called bioreactors , in which the tissue cells are exposed to the same physical and physiological influences as in natural growth processes, for example a continuously changing pressure is exerted on bone tissue, cells for blood vessels are pulsed Liquids flow around them and tracheal tissue is exposed to a steadily changing direction of air flow in order to simulate the microbiological environment in the laboratory. The first systems for the fully automated production of human skin tissue already exist.

Together with her husband, Heike Walles was able to grow human tracheal tissue for three patients up to 2009 for the treatment of defects in the trachea.

In 2010, an EU research project on bone regeneration was started under the title Vascubone , headed by Heike Walles. Heike Walles will take part in the future medical technology conference from June 20 to 21, 2011 in Berlin as an expert on questions relating to EU funding .

At the same time as her medical chair, a research project “Regenerative Technologies for Oncology” is being set up at the Fraunhofer Institute in Würzburg, for which funding of five million euros is being made available as part of a research funding program of the Bavarian state government.

Memberships

• Steering Committee Fraunhofer Institute IGB
• German Society for Regenerative Medicine , spokeswoman for the Scientific Advisory Board 2007–2009
• DECHEMA

Web links

• Heike Walles in the database of renowned academics AcademiaNet
• Skin from the factory Press release Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft / March 22, 2011
• Science create Mini Lung to Test Cancer Drugs WALLST DAYLY

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Heike Mertsching: Curriculum vitae ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 577 kB), website of the Eindhoven University of Technology , accessed on March 3, 2013. 
2. ↑ Prof. Dr. Heike Walles (Mertsching). In: academia-net.de. Retrieved June 15, 2011 . 
3. ↑ Homepage Chair of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the University Hospital Würzburg. (No longer available online.) In: uk-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011 ; Retrieved August 3, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ ^{a b} New Professor - tissue replacement from the bioreactor. In: uk-wuerzburg.de. University Hospital Würzburg, archived from the original on June 16, 2011 ; Retrieved June 16, 2011 . 
5. ↑ Miracles of the Incarnation . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 2011 ( online ). ; Skin factory. Retrieved June 27, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Preis-Walles - Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Bioprocess Engineering. In: igb.fraunhofer.de. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011 ; Retrieved June 15, 2011 . 
7. ↑ King Ludwig House of Würzburg | EU consortium Vascubone | EU consortium Vascubone. In: orthopaedie.uni-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011 ; Retrieved June 16, 2011 . 
8. ↑ ZKMedTechnik.pdf program. (PDF; 3.9 MB) In: Zukunftskonferenz-medizintechnik.de. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011 ; Retrieved June 17, 2011 . 
9. ↑ Appointment of Prof. Dr. Heike Walles to the newly established Chair for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Würzburg. In: mcw.medizin.uni-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011 ; Retrieved June 17, 2011 .