Development and investigation of animal models for atherosclerosis (Mice, rabbits)

• Breeding and investigation of ApoE Knockout Rabbits (in collaboration with Edward Weinstein, St. Louis, USA)
• Development of transgenic rabbits models (in collaboration with Zsuzsanna Bosze, University Gödöllö, Hungary)
  • SR-BI overexpressing rabbits employing an Sleeping Beauty transfer system
  • CETP Knockout Rabbits employing a Zinc finger nuclease approach (TALEN)

• Inhibition of SR-BI in animal atherosclerosis models to study the role of SR-BI for development of atherosclerosis (sh RNA based method)

In vitro Studies on HDL function

• FACS based method to study monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells
• Natural extracts and HDL function
  • In-vitro studies in primary human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC)
  • Studies on gene expression (Affymetrix Chip array, Next Generation Sequencing, QPCR)

Clinical studies

• HDL function in in CAD patients referred to angiography (Innsbruck KHK-Study, LURIC Study)
  • HDL-mediated cholesterol capacity
  • Cholesteryl ester transfer activity
  • HDL function on human primary endothelia cells (Influence on Monocyte adhesion, NO synthesis, ROS production)
  • HDL function on lipid oxidaton

• Dietary studies: influence of plant sterols on efflux capacity and cholesterol transfer (in collaboration with Jogchum Plat, Maastricht University, The Netherlands)