Dr Katja Gehmlich

Katja Gehmlich

Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences
Associate Professor

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 8529
Email
k.gehmlich@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
Univeristy of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Dr Katja Gehmlich is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences.

She is interested in how genetic variants in genes coding for proteins involved in biomechanical stress signalling cause inherited cardiac conditions (cardiomyopathies). She employs molecular, biophysical, cellular and in vivo models in her research. In particular she is interested in using induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes in her research.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Cell Biology 2005
  • Diploma (MSc equivalent) in Chemistry 2001

Biography

Dr Katja Gehmlich graduated with a Diploma in Chemistry (with Molecular and Cellular Biology) from the University of Potsdam, Germany in 2001. She received a PhD in Cell Biology from the same university in 2005.

Dr Gehmlich came to the UK for her postdoctoral training and work at the University of Manchester (2005-2007), University College London (2007 – 2010) and University of Oxford (2010 – 2013).

She was awarded a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship (2013 – 2020). She received the title University Research Lecturer from the University of Oxford in 2016 and became Associate Professor in 2018. She has an active secondary affiliation with Cardiovascular Medicine in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford.

Since 2019, she is Associate Professor in Cardiovascular Science at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham, also Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Oxford.

She has a long standing interest in the cardiac system with focus on inherited cardiac conditions (cardiomyopathies) and bio-mechanical stress signalling.

Teaching

Dr Katja Gehmlich has extensive experience in supervision of undergraduate research students.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Katja Gehmlich has supervised numerous postgraduate students (2 completed, one active).

She accepts PhD students in her group, e.g. with interest in projects using induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes to understand biomechanical stress signalling in the heart.

Research

Dr Katja Gehmlich has a long standing interest into striated muscle systems.

Her research pursues the following questions:

  • What is the role of certain signalling proteins in the heart?
  • What are the consequences of genetic variants in these proteins? How do they cause inherited cardiac conditions (called cardiomyopathies)?
  • Can these diseases be modelled with the help of in vivo models and/or induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes?


Dr Gehmlich collaborates with other research groups such as:

Other activities

Dr Katja Gehmlich is peer reviewer for various International journals and funding agencies. She is member of the editorial board of Biophysical Reviews.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Cumberland, M, Euchner, J, Azad, A, Vo, NTN, Kirchhof, P, Holmes, A, Denning, C & Gehmlich, K 2024, 'Generation of a human iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte/fibroblast engineered heart tissue model [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]', F1000Research, vol. 12, 1224. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.139482.1

Sommerfeld, LC, Holmes, AP, Yu, TY, O'Shea, C, Kavanagh, DM, Pike, JM, Wright, T, Syeda, F, Aljehani, A, Kew, T, Cardoso, VR, Kabir, SN, Hepburn, C, Menon, PR, Broadway‐Stringer, S, O'Reilly, M, Witten, A, Fortmueller, L, Lutz, S, Kulle, A, Gkoutos, GV, Pavlovic, D, Arlt, W, Lavery, GG, Steeds, R, Gehmlich, K, Stoll, M, Kirchhof, P & Fabritz, L 2024, 'Reduced plakoglobin increases the risk of sodium current defects and atrial conduction abnormalities in response to androgenic anabolic steroid abuse', The Journal of Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1113/jp284597

Hall, C, Law, JP, Reyat, JS, Cumberland, MJ, Hang, S, Vo, NTN, Raniga, K, Weston, CJ, O’Shea, C, Townend, JN, Gehmlich, K, Ferro, CJ, Denning, C & Pavlovic, D 2023, 'Chronic activation of human cardiac fibroblasts in vitro attenuates the reversibility of the myofibroblast phenotype', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 12137. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39369-y

Gehmlich, K & Krause, S 2023, 'How we name academic prizes matters', Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01773-9

Broadway-Stringer, S, Jiang, H, Wadmore, K, Hooper, C, Douglas, G, Steeples, V, Azad, AJ, Singer, E, Reyat, JS, Galatik, F, Ehler, E, Bennett, P, Kalisch-Smith, JI, Sparrow, DB, Davies, B, Djinovic-Carugo, K, Gautel, M, Watkins, H & Gehmlich, K 2023, 'Insights into the Role of a Cardiomyopathy-Causing Genetic Variant in ACTN2', Cells, vol. 12, no. 5, 721. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12050721

Patel, L, Roy, A, Mia B Alvor, A, Yuan, M, Baig, S, V Bunting, K, Hodson, J, Gehmlich, K, M Lord, J, Geberhiwot, T & Paul Steeds, R 2023, 'Phenoage and longitudinal changes on transthoracic echocardiography in Alström Syndrome: A disease of accelerated ageing?', GeroScience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-00959-3

McColgan, G, Villarroel, M & Gehmlich, K 2023, 'Should young athletes be screened for cardiomyopathies to reduce the burden of sudden cardiac death in athletes?', Biophysical Reviews, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 321-327. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-023-01085-2

Cumberland, M, Riebel, LL, Roy, A, O'Shea, C, Holmes, A, Denning, C, Kirchhof, P, Rodriguez, B & Gehmlich, K 2022, 'Basic Research Approaches to Evaluate Cardiac Arrhythmia in Heart Failure and Beyond', Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 13, 806366. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.806366

O'Reilly, M, Sommerfeld, LC, O'Shea, C, Broadway-Stringer, S, Andaleeb, S, Reyat, JS, Kabir, SN, Stastny, D, Malinova, A, Delbue, D, Fortmueller, L, Gehmlich, K, Pavlovic, D, Skryabin, BV, Holmes, AP, Kirchhof, P & Fabritz, L 2022, 'Familial atrial fibrillation mutation M1875T-SCN5A increases early sodium current and dampens the effect of flecainide', EP Europace. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac218

Hall, C, Gehmlich, K, Denning, C & Pavlovic, D 2021, 'Complex relationship between cardiac fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes in health and disease', Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 10, no. 5, e019338. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.019338

Jiang, H, Hooper, C, Kelly, M, Steeples, V, Simon, J, Beglov, J, Azad, A, Leinhos, L, Bennett, P, Ehler, E, Kalisch-Smith, J, Sparrow, D, Fischer, R, Heilig, R, Isackson, H, Ehsan, M, Patone, G, Huebner, N, Davies, B, Watkins, H & Gehmlich, K 2021, 'Functional analysis of a gene-edited mouse model to gain insights into the disease mechanisms of a titin missense variant', Basic research in cardiology, vol. 116, no. 1, 14, pp. 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00395-021-00853-z

Review article

Noureddine, M & Gehmlich, K 2023, 'Structural and signaling proteins in the Z-disk and their role in cardiomyopathies', Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 14, 1143858. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1143858

Patel, L, Worch, JC, Dove, AP & Gehmlich, K 2023, 'The Utilisation of Hydrogels for iPSC-Cardiomyocyte Research', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 24, no. 12, 9995. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24129995

Wadmore, K, Azad, A & Gehmlich, K 2021, 'The role of Z-disc proteins in myopathy and cardiomyopathy', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 22, no. 6, 3058, pp. 1-30. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22063058

Sontayananon, N, Redwood, C, Davies, B & Gehmlich, K 2020, 'Fluorescent PSC-derived cardiomyocyte reporter lines: generation approaches and their applications in cardiovascular medicine', Biology, vol. 9, no. 11, 402, pp. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology9110402

View all publications in research portal