Kathrin Mädler (pharmacologist)

Kathrin Mädler (born November 9, 1971 in Zwickau ) is a German pharmacologist and diabetologist and was a professor at the University of Bremen from 2014 to 2017 .

Life

Kathrin Mädler grew up in the GDR and studied pharmacy at the University of Vienna , where she received her license to practice medicine in 1998 . She specialized in clinical pharmacy and in 2003 at the University Hospital of Zurich in Marc Donath with a thesis on experimental diabetology doctorate . She then was an assistant professor and research group leader at the Larry Hillblom Islet Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles , a research center for diabetes , led by Peter Butler . Since 2008 she has been the head of the Laboratory for Molecular Diabetology at the Center for Biomolecular Interactions at the University of Bremen, was Heisenberg Professor at the DFG from 2014 to 2017, and has since then been a simple group leader in the Department 2 Biology / Chemistry.

Kathrin Mädler is the mother of two children.

Scientific work

As part of her research, Kathrin Mädler is particularly investigating the mechanism of apoptosis of beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in type 2 diabetes. Two inflammatory messenger substances play a role in the destruction of the beta cells, on the one hand interleukin-1β formed in the islet cells and in adipose tissue and on the other hand the chemokine CXCL 10, which is also produced by the islet cells. Both substances could thus serve as markers in prophylaxis. In addition, Mädler's research led to a new therapeutic approach with drugs that are supposed to protect the remaining islet cells in type 2 diabetes.

Awards and criticism

Kathrin Mädler received the Servier Research Award in Endocrinology in 2001 and an Emmy Noether fellowship from the German Research Foundation seven years later . In 2012 she was awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for young scientists.

In 2014, some of Mädler's scientific publications between 2002 and 2014 were criticized for the first time. On December 9, 2016, the DFG announced that scientific misconduct had been identified and withdrew the Heisenberg professorship that had been awarded in 2014 . In June 2017 it was reported that 20 articles from 2001 to 2014 were under suspicion.