Dr. Robert Szulcek is Professor of Physiology in the department of Physiology at the Charitè - Universitätsmedizin in Berlin (Germany). He is a trained biomedical engineer that specialized in vascular cell biology and translational research during his PhD at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA) and the University Medical Center in Leiden (the Netherlands). His group develops functional in vitro disease models that simulate certain aspects of the complex cell micro-environment of the pulmonary vasculature. These models are designed to identify molecular, structural, and functional abnormalities in primary pulmonary vascular cells from patients with respiratory diseases. His research focuses on pulmonary hypertension (PH) a multi-faceted and highly heterogeneous disease condition clinically defined by an increased mean pulmonary artery pressure. In multiple translational research projects, responses of the pulmonary vascular endothelium to biomechanical, biophysical, and biochemical stimulation as well as cell-matrix and cell-blood interactions are being investigated. The aim is to identify specific cellular dysfunctions and miss-adaptations that can help to advance diagnosis, treatment, and therapy monitoring.
