The LHI/CPC-M (formerly Yildirim Lab) Postdoc has won the 2022 Dissertation Award of the German Lung Foundation e.V. in the field of basic science. She will receive prize money of 1500 euros and will be allowed to present her work in front of a large audience at the main congress of the DGP in Leipzig in May 2022.The prize was awarded at the Autumn Meeting Cell Biology of the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP) at the DZL site Hannover (BREATH).
In her work, Günsel explored the role of the enzyme PRMT7 as an epigenetic factor in the progression of COPD. She and the colleagues of Yildirim Lab (LHI/CPC-M, Helmholtz Munich) discovered: PRMT7 (protein arginine methyltransferase) is elevated in lung tissue and localized in macrophages in COPD patients. Crucially, the high accumulation correlates strongly with alveolar cell death and disease severity.
Title of award-winning dissertation:
Role of PRMT7 in the recruitment of monocyte-derived macrophages into lung tissue and COPD pathogenesis.
To learn more about this research area in the Yildirim Lab at the DZL Munich site, click here.