Specialization
Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine
Focus of research
I am a dedicated, enthusiastic, and passionate scientist with extensive experience in cardiovascular research. I serve as a principal investigator within the Laboratory of Experimental Intensive Care & Anesthesiology (LEICA), leading research within the ‘Tissue Perfusion’ line. My appointment is shared between the Departments of Anesthesiology (0.5 FTE) and Intensive Care Medicine (0.5 FTE).
My translational research focuses on the prevention and treatment of microvascular failure in critical illness. We work from the concept that disruption of vascular barrier integrity leads to vascular leakage, edema formation, impaired microcirculatory perfusion, and ultimately organ injury. We study the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying microvascular failure and aim to identify therapeutic targets that protect or restore organ function.
Our research is innovative because therapeutically targeting the endothelium in microvascular failure remains largely unexplored in critical illness. Although the importance of microcirculatory perfusion has recently gained attention, effective therapies are still lacking. In previous work, we demonstrated that disturbances in microcirculatory perfusion coincide with vascular leakage and organ injury in animal models of critical illness. Importantly, pharmacological activation of a key pathway regulating vascular barrier integrity reduced vascular leakage and restored microcirculatory perfusion, supporting the concept that preserving microvascular integrity is essential for organ protection.
A distinctive strength of my laboratory is the integration of advanced physiological measurements with molecular analyses of lung and kidney tissues. We apply innovative experimental strategies, including the use of a Tie2 loss-of-function mouse model and in vitro endothelial permeability assays using plasma from critically ill patients. In addition, I established a rat model of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation/cardiopulmonary bypass, a technically challenging and rare platform worldwide. My team has extensive expertise in assessing microcirculatory perfusion across both experimental and clinical settings, using intravital microscopy, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and hand-held side-stream dark-field imaging in patients.
Together with national and international collaborators, our work integrates preclinical and clinical research to advance the understanding of microvascular failure in critical illness and to develop clinically applicable interventions that restore microvascular integrity and improve organ function in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine.