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Herr Rinkevich, Yuval, Dr.
Michael Haggenmueller

Dr. Yuval Rinkevich

Director, IRBM
+49 89 3187 4685Email meBuilding/Room: Großhadern/ 2nd floor/C3.11

“Regenerative medicine encompasses our scientific desire to understand and capitalize on nature’s tools for healing. Our goal is to uncover novel tissue repair mechanisms that can be exploited to restore diseased and injured tissues..”

“Regenerative medicine encompasses our scientific desire to understand and capitalize on nature’s tools for healing. Our goal is to uncover novel tissue repair mechanisms that can be exploited to restore diseased and injured tissues.”

Academic Pathway & Research Area

Dr. Rinkevich has been working at the cutting edge of our understanding of tissue/organ repair and regeneration for over 20 years. His passion and commitment to understanding healing responses and tissue rejuvenation has led his career track from the point of obtaining his PhD degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, where he studied whole body regeneration from single blood vessels in Protochordates.  Dr Rinkevich moved to Stanford University in the US where he investigated pivotal cellular lineages and stem cells in coordinating mammalian tissue repair and regeneration. His work at Stanford projected Dr Rinkevich into the forefront of the tissue repair field, uncovering the role of Engrailed-1 positive cells in the transition from scarless to scar forming tissue responses.

Today Dr Rinkevich is the Director of the Helmholtz Institute of Regenerative Biology and Medicine at the Helmholtz Center, Munich, Germany. His lab fuses a focus on basic biology, continuing to push forward our understanding of tissue/organ repair and regeneration, with a vision to applying these findings to drug development strategies and translation to the clinic. Publication in high impact journals including Nature and Science, numerous patents and supported by prestigious awards such as the ERC Consolidator Grant, highlight the quality of his team’s work. Dr Rinkevich’s latest work describing the role of fascia and transfer of extracellular matrix in tissue scarring and fibrosis in multiple organ systems is reinventing the way we look at tissue repair and regeneration. These findings provide a new perspective on the potential for clinical intervention, opening our minds to a revolution in antifibrotic therapy, a clinical area impacting fields of medicine from oncology to hepatology and pulmonology, and the potential to prevent and potentially resolve fibrotic disease.

Fields of Work and Expertise

Developmental Biology Stem Cell BiologyPathologyTissue Repair and Regeneration Fibrosis ScarringExtra-Cellular Matrix 

Professional Background

since 2021

Director, Institute of Regenerative Biology and Medicine

2019-2021

Tenured Principal Investigator / Helmholtz Zentrum München

2015-2019

PI, Helmholtz Center Munich

2014-2015

Basic Life Science Research Associate, Stanford University

2008-2014

Post doctorate, Stanford University

2003-2008

Doctorate in Biology (PhD), Israel Institute of Technology

2001-2003

Master of Science (MSc), Israel Institute of Technology

1997-2000

Bachelor of Science (BSc), Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University

Honors and Awards

  • 2019-2024
    ERC Consolidator grant award

  • 2017-2018
    Early Career Investigator Fund/The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

  • 2017
    Honored for outstanding scientific achievements/Helmholtz Zentrum München

  • 2016-2019
    Career Development Award/Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP)

  • 2011-2015
    Postdoctoral Fellowship/Thomas & Stacey Siebel Foundation

  • 2014
    Travel award/2nd International Annual German Stem Cell Network (GSCN)

  • 2009-2012
    Long-Term Fellowship/Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP).

  • 2008-2011
    Postdoctoral Fellowship/Machiah Foundation, Jewish Community Foundation (JCF)

  • 2007
    Travel award/4th International Tunicate meeting

  • 2006
    Travel award/MGE Exploratory Workshop “Stem Cells in Marine Organisms”

  • 2006
    Travel award/EMBO 3rd European conference on Regeneration

  • 2004
    Student Fellowship/Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL)

Key publications

2023

Correa-Gallegos D., Ye H., Dasgupta B., Sardogan A., Kadri S., Kandi R., Dai R., Lin Y., Kopplin R., Shantaram D.S., Wannemacher J., Ichijo R., Jiang D., Strunz M., Ansari M., Angelidis I., Schiller H.B., Voltz T., Machens H.-G., Rinkevich Y. (2023). CD201+ fascia progenitors choreograph injury repair. Nature. 623, 792–802

Kalgudde G.S., Dai R., Stefanska A. M., Ansari M., Zhao J., Ramesh P., Bagnoli J. W., Correa-Gallegos D., Lin Y., Christ S., Angelidis I., Lupperger V., Marr C., Davies L. C., Enard W., Machens H.-G., Schiller H. B.*, Jiang D.*, Rinkevich Y.* (2023). Wound infiltrating adipocytes are not myofibroblasts. Nat Commun 14: 3020. 

Fischer A, Correa-Gallegos D, Wannemacher J, Christ S, Machens HG, Rinkevich Y. In vivo fluorescent labeling and tracking of extracellular matrix. Nat Protoc. 2023 Oct;18(10):2876-2890. 

Qarri A, Kültz D, Gardell A. M, Rinkevich B, Rinkevich Y (2023) Improved Media Formulations for Primary Cell Cultures Derived from a Colonial Urochordate, Cells 2023, 12(13), 1709 

Ye H, Rinkevich Y (2023) Fascia layer - a novel target for the application of biomaterials in skin wound healing; International Journal of Molecular Sciences; Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(3), 2936; 

Bajwa P, Kordylewicz K, Bilecz A, Lastra RR, Wroblewski K, Rinkevich Y, Lengyel E, Kenny HA, (2023) Cancer-associated mesothelial cell-derived ANGPTL4 and STC1 promote the early steps of ovarian cancer metastasis, JCI Insight. 2023;8(6):e163019.

2022

Qarri A, Rinkevich B, Rinkevich Y (2022) Improving the Yields of Blood Cell Extractions from Botryllus schlosseri Vasculature, Advances in aquatic invertebrate stem cell research

Correa-Gallegos D, Machens HG, Rinkevich Y (2022) States and Fates of Skin Fibroblasts Revealed through Chromatin Accessibility, J Invest Dermatol. 142 (7): 1767-1770

Jiang D, Guo R, Machens HG, Rinkevich Y (2022) Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol; Diversity of Fibroblasts and Their Roles in Wound Healing.

Ramesh P, Ye H, Dasgupta B, Machens HG, Rinkevich Y (2022) Visualizing Scar Development Using SCAD Assay – An Ex-situ Skin Scarring Assay, J Vis Exp. (182)

Hyams Y, Panov J,  Rosner A, Brodsky L, Rinkevich Y, Rinkevich B (2022) Transcriptome landscapes that signify Botrylloides leachi torpor states, Developmental Dynamics 490: 22-36

Wu M, Matar DY, Yu Z, Chen Z, Knoedler S, Ng B, Darwish OA, Sohrabi S, Friedman L, Haug V, Murphy GF, Rinkevich Y, Orgill DP, Panayi AC (2022) Continuous NPWT Regulates Fibrosis in Murine Diabetic Wound HealingPharmaceutics 14 (10):2125,

2021

Fischer A, Wannemacher J, Christ S, Koopmans T, Kadri S, Zhao J, Gouda M, Ye H, Mück-Häusl M, Krenn P.W., Machens H.G., Fässler R, Neuman P.A., Hauck S, Rinkevich Y; Neutrophils direct preexisting matrix in to initiate repair of damaged organs, Nature Immunology

Qarri A, Rinkevich B, Rinkevich Y (2021) Employing marine invertebrate cell culture media for isolation and cultivation of thraustochytrids, Botanica Marina 64(6):447-454

2020

Jiang D, Christ S, Correa-Gallegos D, Ramesh P, Kalgudde Gopa S, Wannemacher J, Mayr C, Lupperger V, Yu Q, Ye H, Mück-Häusl M, Rajendran V, Wan L, Liu J, Mirastschijski U, Volz T, Marr C, Schiller H, Rinkevich Y (2020) Fascia fibroblasts swarm to drive scar formation through N-cadherin, Nature Communications 11, 5653

Fischer A, Koopmans T, Ramesh P, Christ S, Strunz M, Aichler M, Feuchtinger A, Walch A, Ansari M, Theis FJ, Schorpp K, Hadian K, Neumann P A, Schiller HB, Rinkevich Y ; Post-surgical adhesions are caused by membrane bridges and fusions between mesothelial surfaces, Nature Communications 11, 3068

2019

Correa-Gallegos D, Jiang D, Christ S, Ramesh P, Ye H, Wannemacher J, Kalgudde Gopal S, Yu Q, Aichler M, Walch A, Mirastschijski U, Volz T, Rinkevich Y (2019) Patch repair of deep wounds by mobilized fascia, Nature 576, 287-292

2018

Jiang D, Correa-Gallegos D, Christ S, Stefanska A, Liu J, Ramesh P, Rajendran V, Wagner D, Rinkevich Y (2018) Two succeeding fibroblastic lineages drive dermal development and the transition from regeneration to scarring, Nature Cell Biology 20:422-431

Tsai JM, Sinha R,  Seita J, Fernhoff N, Christ S, Koopmans T, Krampitz GW,  McKenna KM, Xing L, Shoham M, 10. McCracken M, Joubert LM, Gordon SR, Poux N, Wernig G, Norton JA, Sandholzer M, Sales J, Weissman IL, Rinkevich Y (2018) Surgical adhesions in mice are derived from mesothelial cells and can be targeted by antibodies against mesothelial markers, Science Translational Medicine 10(469)

2015

Rinkevich Y, Walmsley GG, Hu MS, Maan ZN, Newman AM, Drukker M, Lorenz PH, Weissman IL, Longaker MT (2015) Identification and Targeted inhibition of a Dermal Lineage Responsible for Scarring and Cancer Stroma, Science 348:420-431

Romagnani P, Rinkevich Y, Dekel B (2015) Lineage Tracing Methods to Study Kidney Injury and Regeneration, their Limitations and Advantages, Nature Reviews Nephrology 11:420-431