Prof. Dr. Sabine Werner

Tissue Repair & Cancer

Tissue injury initiates a series of events, which lead to at least partial reconstruction of the affected body site. Many conditions are associated with impaired tissue repair, including old age, steroid treatment and chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. A prerequisite for the improvement of impaired healing is a thorough understanding of the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. Our laboratory studies these mechanisms, focusing on the roles of growth factors and their downstream signaling pathways in the repair process. One of the most exciting aspects of our work is the analysis of the parallels between tissue repair and cancer. We use state-of-the art approaches, including functional genomics and proteomics, 2D and 3D primary cell culture systems, and genetically modified mice for our research. Through collaboration with clinical partners we determine the importance of our findings for the human situation as a prerequisite for future clinical applications.

Sabine Werner is chair of external page SKINTEGRITY.CH – a collaborative research program, which brings together experts in multiple disciplines with the aim to better understand, diagnose and treat acute and chronic skin defects, inflammatory and fibrotic skin diseases and skin cancer.