Natural products and their protective effect against hyperglycemia- the role of activated Nrf2

Supervisor: Elke Heiss - Young Investigator, Department of Pharmacognosy

Co-Supervisors: Verena Dirsch, Doris Marko

Student: Kristin Zimmermann

Hyperglycemia as observed in patients with type II diabetes ultimately leads to a chronic and detrimental pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory environment for different cells and organs including the vasculature. In the course of this project, the student will test selected natural compounds and metabolites for their protective effect under hyperglycemic conditions and analyze the causal role of the antioxidant transcription factor Nrf2 and its target genes therein.The project offers usage of state-of-the art techniques in natural product pharmacology and cell/ molecular biology (including (primary) cell cultivation, transfection (DNA, siRNA), reporter gene assays, immunoblotting, flow cytometry, microarray analysis, qPCR etc.) and provides multiple connection points to other projects within the consortium allowing vivid mutual data or tool exchange and constructive input.