Markus Tschurtschenthaler

Consolidated Researcher Details:

Institute:
Workgroup Saur, Klinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin II, Munich
Research Area:
Inflammatory bowel disease, Epigenetics
Dr. rer. nat.
Markus Tschurtschenthaler
markus.tschurtschenthaler [at] tum.de

Why this profession?

Since early childhood I have had an interest in science and I am zealously engaged to solve its fascinating puzzles. We are living in particularly exciting times and are constantly faced with attractive ideas. In science we have the unique opportunity to translate them into results with all our curiosity, creativeness and ambition. Moreover, every single experiment might give us the chance to expand human knowledge.

Working with different disease models in my scientific career (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1C, Primary sclerosing cholangitis and Crohn’s disease) has sparked my interest on disease-relevant genes and their immunological functions. Currently, I’m pursuing my docotal research in Prof. Kaser’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge and I’m investigating how genetic and environmental risks associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) may contribute to the development of intestinal inflammation.

Markus Tschurtschenthaler, who is now working as a postdoc in the Workgroup Saur, Klinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin II, Munich, was awarded an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship and Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship in 2017.

 

 

Why RTG Genes, Environment and Inflammation?

In the last few years it has been recognised that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a phenomenon of the industrialising world’s lifestyle that underlies a disturbed regulation of genetic and environmental factors. Since genetic risk only accounts for a fraction of IBD cases, I’m interested in investigating epigenetic changes that might help explaining this discrepancy, which is known as ‘missing heritability’. I could therefore not imagine a better platform than the Research Training Group ‘Genes, Environment and Inflammation’ with its interdisciplinary character to pursue this project.