Thomas Brand

Professor Brand was recruited as a Professor and Chair of Developmental Dynamics in October 2009 from the University of Würzburg, Germany, where he was a Professor of Molecular Developmental Biology and Head of a Working Group in Cardiac Developmental Biology since 2004. He was a Group Leader at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (Professor Hans-Henning Arnold), University of Braunschweig, Germany, from 1994 to 2004. He did his postdoctoral training with Professor Michael D. Schneider at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, U.S.A, from 1991 to 1994. For his Ph.D. he worked at the Max-Planck Institute for Physiological and Clinical Research in Bad Nauheim, Germany (Professor Wolfgang Schaper), from 1988 to 1990. He studied Biology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, from 1980 to 1987.

Professor Brand's research focuses on cardiac development and ageing. He is interested in the development of the proepicardium, an embryonic structure that develops into the epicardium and the coronary vasculature. He is interested in the signaling process involved in left-right asymmetry development of the heart. Finally he works on a novel class of membrane proteins, the Popeye proteins, which are involved in stress adaptation of cardiac pacemaker activity.

Professor Brand is a referee for numerous journals, including Cardiovascular Research, Circulation, Circulation Research, Cell and Tissue Research, Development, Developmental Biology, Developmental Dynamics, EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports, International Journal of Developmental Biology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Human Genetics, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Mechanisms of Development, Nature Genetics. Professor Brand acts as a referee for the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Israeli Foundation (GIF), the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). He is a member of the Working group on Developmental Anatomy and Pathology of the European Society of Cardiology

Selected Publications

Journals

• Schindler RF; Scotton C; Zhang J; Passarelli C; Ortiz-Bonnin B; Simrick S; Schwerte T; Poon KL; Fang M; Rinné S; Froese A; Nikolaev VO; Grunert C; Müller T; Tasca G; Sarathchandra P; Drago F; Dallapiccola B; Rapezzi C; Arbustini E; Di Raimo FR; Neri M; Selvatici R; Gualandi F; Fattori F; Pietrangelo A; Li W; Jiang H; Xu X; Bertini E; Decher N; Wang J; Brand T; Ferlini A (07.12.2015) POPDC1S201F causes muscular dystrophy and arrhythmia by affecting protein trafficking. J Clin Invest.
• Froese A; Breher SS; Waldeyer C; Schindler RF; Nikolaev VO; Rinné S; Wischmeyer E; Schlueter J; Becher J; Simrick S; Vauti F; Kuhtz J; Meister P; Kreissl S; Torlopp A; Liebig SK; Laakmann S; Müller TD; Neumann J; Stieber J; Ludwig A; Maier SK; Decher N; Arnold HH; Kirchhof P; Fabritz L; Brand T. (22 Feb 2012). Popeye domain containing proteins are essential for stress-mediated modulation of cardiac pacemaking. J Clin Invest. doi: 10.1172/JCI59410.Publisher weblink DOI.
• Kirchmaier BC, Poon KL, Schwerte T, Huisken J, Winkler C, Jungblut B, Stainier DY, Brand T. (15 Mar 2012). The Popeye domain containing 2 (popdc2) gene in zebrafish is required for heart and skeletal muscle development. Dev Biol. 363:438-450
• Schlueter J; Brand T. (05 May 2009). A right-sided pathway involving FGF8/Snai1 controls asymmetric development of the proepicardium in the chick embryo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106:7485-7490. Andree B; Fleige A; Arnold HH; Brand T. (Mar 2002). Mouse Pop1 is required for muscle regeneration in adult skeletal muscle. MOL CELL BIOL. 22:1504-1512.