Dozent: Prof. Sven Thoms

In this seminar, we will discuss data on the role of peroxisomes in the heart, beginning with a serendipitous discovery. Using a mouse model and a e gene-edited iPSC-based engineered human heart myocardium, we have investigated the function of peroxisomes in cardiomyocytes from molecular cardiology, cell biology, and metabolic perspectives.

Sven Thoms specializes in peroxisomes, translational readthrough, dysferlin, and rare diseases caused by defective cell organelles. He and his colleagues co-discovered novel isoforms of lactate and malate dehydrogenases generated through translational readthrough. Thoms studied chemistry and biochemistry at the Universities of Konstanz, Sussex (Brighton), and Witten. He completed his diploma thesis at the Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH) under the supervision of Stefan Jentsch and earned his PhD at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen. He then conducted research on peroxisomes in the Department of Systems Biochemistry at the University of Bochum. Until 2020, Thoms was a research associate and group leader in the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University Medical Center Göttingen. He completed his habilitation in biochemistry at the University of Göttingen in 2013. In 2016, he was awarded the Eva Luise Köhler Research Prize for Rare Diseases. Since 2020, Thoms has been a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the Medical Faculty of Bielefeld University. From 2021 to 2022, he served as the first research dean of the newly established faculty.