Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Schmitz

Short CV

Gerd Schmitz is Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Transfusion Medicine and the former Head of the Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine-Central Laboratory and Blood Bank/Stem Cell-Center at the University Clinic of Regensburg.

The major research interest has been the pathogenesis of vascular and metabolic diseases with a focus on the role of the innate immune system and particularly cytomics of blood cells and their released microparticles. The group coordinated the EU-funded “European Working Group of Clinical Cell Analysis (EWGCCA)” with a major focus on Multiparameter Fluorescence Flow Cytometry and Confocal Imaging Microscopy.The group was the first who published the genetic defects of the rare diseases Acid Lipase Deficiency (CESD & Wolmans Disease), Apo A-I Deficiency with Plane Xanthomas, and ABCA1 Deficiency (Tangier Disease). The group continued identifying new mutations in ABCA3 Deficiency, Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, Hermansky-Pudlack Syndrome and Sphingolipidoses. A core competence of the group was the development and implementation of new multiomics-technologies for liquid, cellular and molecular analyses towards evidence-based medicine. Later, a major focus was related to quantitative high-throughput mass-spectrometry (HT-MS/MS-based lipidomics. Here the group had a leading position in Europe, covering the major lipid classes and species. We coordinated the European FP-7-IP-Project LipidomicNet and were a member of the National BMBF-SysMBIO project. We also participated in the BMBF-DEEP (German Epigenome Project) & the EU-funded MyNewGut consortia. The group extensively characterized the human blood cell lipidome, proteome, transcriptome, and epigenome, especially in monocytes/ macrophages, platelets and circulating microparticles/exosomes. The group characterized the changes in the lipidomic, proteomic, and miRNA-composition of platelets and their microparticles during platelet senescence. The group contributed with lipidomics (e.g. tracking FA-species through miR-122 related lipid classes such as acylglycerols, glycerophospholipids, cholesterylesters, sphingolipids), analysis of microparticle composition or quantity and in vitro laboratory testing. Finally, the group studied the Influence of lipidomic and epigenetic stimuli on the in vitro differentiation of members of the “stem cell niche” towards hematopoietic-, osteogenic-, adipogenic- and fibrogenic-lineage development. Prof. Schmitz current interest focuses on the epigenetic, transcriptomic and lipidomic signaling of milk and milk extracellular vesicles.

He published with his group more than 380 peer reviewed scientific publications in leading international journals.