© Raphael Schleutker

Research Topic

We are interested in the genetic control of organogenic events, in particular formation of the vascular system (blood vessels, lymphatics) and of bone. Using zebrafish and mice as our animal models, we aim to understand what function specific genes/proteins have during early development. A key aspect of our work is in vivo imaging in zebrafish. The majority of genes we study leads to human pathologies in those cases, where the orthologous genes are deficient in human patients.

Selected Publications

  • Hußmann M., Schulte D., Weischer S., Carlantoni C., Nakajima H., Mochizuki N., Stainier D.Y.R., Zobel T., Koch M., Schulte-Merker S. (2023) Svep1 is a binding ligand of Tie1 and affects specific aspects of facial lymphatic development in a Vegfc-independent manner. Elife. 2023 Apr 25;12:e82969. doi: 10.7554/eLife.82969.
  • Huisman Y., Uphoff K., Berger M., Dobrindt U., Schelhaas M., Zobel T., Bussmann J., van Impel A., Schulte-Merker S. (2022) Meningeal lymphatic endothelial cells fulfill scavenger endothelial cell function and cooperate with microglia in waste removal from the brain.  Glia 70(1):35-49. doi: 10.1002/glia.24081.
  • Koltowska K., Okuda K.S., Gloger M., Rondon-Galeano M., Mason E., Xuan J., Dudczig S., Chen H., Arnold H., Skoczylas R., Bower N.I., Paterson S., Lagendijk A.K., Baillie G.J., Leshchiner I., Simons C., Smith K.A., Goessling W., Heath J.K., Pearson R.B., Sanij E., Schulte-Merker S., Hogan B.M. (2021) The RNA helicase Ddx21 controls Vegfc-driven developmental lymphangiogenesis by balancing endothelial cell ribosome biogenesis and p53 function. Nat Cell Biol. 2021 Nov;23(11):1136-1147. doi: 10.1038/s41556-021-00784-w.
  • Mauri C., van Impel A., Mackay E.W., Schulte-Merker S. (2021) The adaptor protein Grb2b is an essential modulator for lympho-venous sprout formation in the zebrafish trunk. Angiogenesis 24(2):345-362. doi: 10.1007/s10456-021-09774-w.
  • Wang G, Muhl L, Padberg Y, Dupont L, Peterson-Maduro J, Stehling M, le Noble F, Colige A, Betsholtz C, Schulte-Merker S, van Impel A. (2020) Specific fibroblast subpopulations and neuronal structures provide local sources of Vegfc-processing components during zebrafish lymphangiogenesis. Nat Commun. 11(1):2724. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16552-7.