Speaker:

Professor Stefanie Dimmeler

Stefanie Dimmeler is born on 18.07.1967 in Ravensburg, Germany. Dr. Dimmeler received her under- graduate, graduate, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Konstanz in Konstanz (Germany) and then completed a fellowship in Experimental Surgery at the University of Cologne and in Molecular Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt (Germany). She is Professor of Experimental Medicine (since 2001) and Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Center for Molecular Medicine at the University of Frankfurt since 2008.

In the last years, she has been invited as a speaker in more than 300 national and international meetings and seminars and has presented various keynote lectures. She also received several awards, is among the top 3 female Scientists in Germany and received the honorary doctorate of the University of Bern in 2023.

She is also spokesperson of the “Cardiopulmonary Institute” (CPI) which is funded by the Excellence Strategy Program of the German Research Foundation and spokesperson of the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK). She also received three Advanced Investigator Grants by the European Research Community (ERC).

Her group elucidates the basic mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease and vessel growth with the aim to develop new cellular and pharmacological therapies for improving the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Ongoing research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms that control cardiovascular repair, specifically non-coding RNAs.

Talk Title:

Senescence and Vascular Crosstalk as Drivers and Therapeutic Targets of Cardiac Aging

Aging profoundly reshapes the cardiac landscape, leading to structural remodeling, fibrosis, and functional decline. Across our recent studies, we identify cellular senescence and its impact on vascular integrity and intercellular communication as central mechanisms driving cardiac aging. Senescent endothelial and mural cells disrupt neurovascular and lymphatic homeostasis, foster inflammatory microenvironments, and impair reparative capacity. These alterations converge in the perivascular niche, a critical hotspot of “inflammaging” characterized by aberrant fibroblast–macrophage interactions and immune-evasive senescent cells. Restoring vascular and neural integrity through senolytic interventions or vascular growth factor modulation (VEGFB, VEGFC) mitigates fibrosis, improves autonomic balance, and preserves cardiac function. Collectively, these findings highlight the interconnectedness of vascular, neural, and immune pathways in cardiac aging and position senescence as a unifying therapeutic target. Targeting senescence and its vascular crosstalk opens new avenues for maintaining cardiovascular resilience and healthy aging.

 Association: https://www.cardiovascular-regeneration.com/dimmeler-group/

Host: Prof Mauro Giacca