User:Ventus55/Wolfgang-Michael Franz

Wolfgang-Michael Franz (born 16 December 1959 in Munch) is a German internal medicine, cardiologist and professor at the Medical University of Innsbruck. He there leads the Clinic for Internal Medicine III for Cardiology and Angiology. He is known for his work in the fields of stem cell research and for his work in the context of the stem cell law in Germany. He also published works on internistic intensive-care medicine, cell regeneration after myocardial infarction and in combination with chronic heart failure, transplantation of stem cells in the infarction model and clinical studies on stem cell therapy after myocardial infarction and after chronic heart failure.

Biography
Franz studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) 1979-86. He was awarded a doctorate magna cum laude on a thesis about genetic markers in essential hypertonia. For his postgraduate study 1986-89 Franz obtained a scholarship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), dealing with gene therapy. He continued his experiences on cardiac muscle specific gene expression in the transgene animal model at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (virus research) 1989-91. His clinical career began with stations at the Deutsches Herzzentrum München 1991-92, at the University of Heidelberg (internal medicine) 1992-96, and at the Medical University of Lübeck 1996-2001. His specialist training include medical specialist for internal medicine in 1997, additional certifications for cardiology in 2000 and social internistic intensive-care medicine in 2007. Franz stood abroad at the Porto Allegre in 19984, at the Medical University of Rio de Janeiro and at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Johannesburg in 1985, at the Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) 1986-89 and at the Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif in 1994. Franz was habilitated at the Medical University of Lübeck in 1999. His clinical career included assistance physician work at several clinics 1991-97, attending deputy at the Medical University of Lübeck and at the policlinic of the medical faculty of the LMU (Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum der Universität Munich). HIs clinical and medical tasks spanned cardiology, rhythmology, pulmology, endocrinology, nephrology, gastroenterology, toxicology, interventional cardiology, echo-cardiology and internistic intensive-care medicine. In 2013 he was appointed professor at the Medical University of Innsbruck. There he became head of the Clinic for Internal Medicine III, Cardiology and Angiology.

Scientific contribution
The work group of Wolfgang-Michael Franz focusses on the following areas of interest:


 * Mobilisation of stem cells by Cytokines and other factors
 * Selection of cardiomyocytes from embryonic stem cells
 * Transplantation of embryonic and adult stem cells to the infarcted myocardium
 * Isolation and characterisation of heart muscle specific promoters
 * Transgenic animal models of heart failure and cardiomyopathy
 * Gene-therapeutic approaches to tissue specific expression in heart and smooth muscle cells

The spectrum encompasses basic science approaches with pluripotent stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells, embryonic stem cells, pluripotent stem cells), decoding of cardiovascular signal paths and purification of cardiovascular progenitor cells for cell therapeutic approaches and tissue engineering, pre clinic approaches with adult stem cells (regenerator cells) from bone marrow as well as clinical studies. Thus substances are administered for the enhancement of mobilization (e.g. B. G-CSF, PTH, Erythropoietin) and homing (DPP-IV inhibitors, antidiabetics) of endogeneous regenerator cells, which are currently tested  for prevention of ischemic cardiomyopathy of patients after acute myocardial infarction in „investigator-initiated clinical studies“ (SITAGRAMI, C-Cure).

Forward programming of pluripotent stem cells
The goal of Franz and his team is to understand the developmental pathways of cardiovasculogenesis in the model of pluripotent stem cell lines. He tries to use the information to direct pluripotent stem cells via gene expression or chemical induction into cardiovascular cell progenitors, or subtypes such as ventricular or pacemaker cells. This process was called forward programming. Furthermore, trials were made to isolate specific subtypes of cardiovascular cells using cell-type specific promoters driving unique marker genes. After characterisation of these purified cells they will be used for tissue engineering in order to generate myocardial grafts or cell transplants to support the failing myocardium. In order to remove the risk of teratoma formation, he tried to differentiate the pluripotent cells to cardiovascular progenitor cells, which only give rise to cardiac, smooth muscle and endothelial cell types. An approach which was taken to circumvent teratoma formation is the engineering of a functioning heart ex vivo containing differentiated cells with no tumorigenic potential. Franz and his team showed that Pacemaker cells can be generated from pluripotent stem cells an can be used to substitute the sinus node. They generated pacemaker cells from pluripotent stem cells to use them in the future as biological pacemakers to treat patients with sick sinus syndrome.

Contribution to the public discussion of stem cell research
Before dealing with the legal framework for the handling of embryonic stem cells Franz worked with the production of embryonic stem cells from blastocyst after in vitro fertilization. The aim was to generate myocardial grafts or cell transplants to support the failing myocardium. Franz repeatedly expressed his criticism on the restrictive conditions in the German stem cell law (2002), also after the EU-compromise (2006). His criticism was largely attributable to an amendment of the German stem cell law, concerning the effective date of stem cell import into Germany (2008).

Patents

 * Franz WM (2012): A combination therapy with the protein G-CSF and an inhibitor of the enzyme DPP-IV enables the regeneration of diseased cardiac tissue


 * Franz WM, Engelmann M, Steinbeck G (2003): Use of g-csf for treating ischemia WO 2005049062 A1


 * Franz, WM (2003): Remedies for ischemia


 * Franz WM, Wobus AM (1996): Embryonal cardiac muscle cells, their preparation and their use. International Patent WO 96/16163


 * Franz WM, Katus HA, Rothmann T (1996): Gene-therapeutic nucleic acid construct, production of same and use of same in the treatment of heart disorders WO 1997017937 A3

Referee in biotechnology and stem cell research

 * 2002      Advisory board of the  Deutscher Bundestag for stem cell legislation, Berlin
 * 2002	 Ethik Council of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Hannover
 * 2002	 Advisory board of the Bayerischer Landtag for stem cell legislation, München
 * 2003-2006 Advisory board AG “Bildung und Forschung” of the Deutscher Bundestag
 * 2004-2007 Advisory board of the “Ausschuss für Bildung, Forschung und
 * 2005	 Technikfolgenabschätzung” of the Deutscher Bundestag
 * 2006-2007 Symposium „Research and ethical criteria within the scope of the stem cell
 * 2007	 legislation“, Central Ethic Committee for Stem Cell Research, Berlin
 * 2008-2008 Advisory board for the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung „Stammzellforschung“, München
 * 2009-2007/ European Commission, FP7-Health, Regenerative Medicine
 * 2009/2010 European Commission, FP7-Health, Regenerative Medicine Clinical Trials
 * 2011/2012 European Commission, REA-FP7-Health, Stem Cell Trials
 * 2012/2013 European Commission, FP7-HEALTH-2013-INNOVATION-1

Memberships
Wolfgang-Michael Franz is a board member of a number of national and international scientific societies and institutions and editorial boards.
 * International Society for Heart Research (ISHR), European Section (member)
 * European Society for Gene Therapy (ESC) (member), Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart (Mitglied)

Awards

 * 1986 DFG Award for Research Fellowship in Molecular Biology
 * 1993 Oskar-Lapp-Forschungspreis of the Deutsche Gesellschaft. für Herz- und Kreislaufforschung, Heidelberg, Thema: "Charakterisierung einer regulatorischen DNA-Sequenz mit entwicklungs- und herzmuskelspezifischer Aktivität im transgenen Mausmodell".
 * 1997 Young Investigator Award des American College of Angiology, (O. Müller). Thesis: The 2.3 kb SMHC promoter directs vascular-specific gene expression in transgenic mice.
 * 2007 Travel-Award of the Weinstein Conference in Indianapolis, USA, (M. Zaruba). Thesis: „Parathyroid hormone treatment after myocardial infarction in mice ameliorates late ischemic cardiomyopathy by enhanced homing of CD45+/CD34+/CXCR4+ stem cells”

Publications
Research Gate Publications

PubMed Publications

Broadcast and TV
Franz repeatedly hold interviews and had appearances in the German TV and broadcast, concerning stem cell research:
 * Talk with Prof. Wolfgang Franz, cardiologist about Stem cell research. Bayerischer Rundfunk, February 2008
 * IQ special: stem cells (discussion). Bayerischer Rundfunk, April 2008
 * Talk: stem cell research. Bayerischer Rundfunk 2, April 2009