Dr. Mareike Lehmann
LHI Group Leader “Lung Inflammaging” - Emmy Noether Research Group Leader "The Heterogeneity of Lung Aging and Regeneration"I want my work to ultimately impact patients´ lives, that is what drives me and my research."
“I want my work to ultimately impact patients´ lives, that is what drives me and my research.”
Academic career and research areas
Aging is a major risk factor for lung disease. Mareike wants to understand how aging impacts the lung and how this contributes to the development of chronic lung diseases.
She discovered her passion for lung research during an internship while she was still in school. Mareike then trained as a molecular biologist in Bonn, Germany and moved to Switzerland to do her PhD in Zürich, one of the biggest biomedical hubs in Europe. She returned to lung research during her Postdoc at the Comprehensive Pneumology Center at Helmholtz Munich. She has established a research program addressing the effect of aging on the lung and is heading her own group since 2021. In 2022 she moved to the Institute of Lung Health and Immunity where her group together with national and international collaborators investigates the role of “Lung Inflammaging” in chronic lung diseases such as COPD and IPF.
Mareike Lehmann also is a professor of translational inflammation research at the University of Marburg. She was awarded with a prestigious Emmy Noether award earlier this year that will further allow her to explore cellular senescence and inflammaging in the development of COPD and IPF with a special focus on extracellular vesicles.
She is dedicated to understanding how we can pharmacologically target aging in the lung and to develop biomarkers allowing us to assess these proceses in patients. She ultimately wants her research to enter clinical practice and change patients´ lives.
Skills
Chronic Lung Diseases Aging Lung Organoids Stem Cells Ex vivo models Inflammation
Professional Background
Emmy Noether Research Group Leader "The Heterogeneity of Lung Aging and Regeneration"
Prinicipal Investigator “Lung Inflammaging”, Institute of Lung Health and Immunity, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany, CPC-M
Principal Investigator “Lung Aging” Lung Repair and Regeneration Unit, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany
Postdoctoral researcher / Project Leader “Lung Aging” Lung Repair and Regeneration Unit, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany
Doctoral thesis in Molecular Life Sciences University of Zurich, Switzerland
Diploma Molecular Biomedicine, Bonn
Honors and Awards
2023 - ERS Early Career Member Award
2023 - Emmy Noether Junior Research Group (German Research Foundation, DFG)
2021 - Rising star of Research Award of the Science and Innovation Center of the American Thoracic Society
2020 - International Trainee Scholarship by the American Thoracic Society (ATS)
2017 - Young scientist delegate for the Lung Science Conference 2017 in Estoril, Portugal
Publications
2017 European Respiratory Journal
2020 Cellular Signalling
Chronic WNT/β-catenin signaling induces cellular senescence in lung epithelial cells
2022 European Respiratory Journal
2017 American Journal of Physiology
An ex vivo model to induce early fibrosis-like changes in human precision-cut lung slices