Member Spotlight: Robert Zweigerdt, PhD

Robert Zweigerdt, Dr. rer. nat
Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany

Hometown
Wolfsburg; headquarter of VW car engineering and located “in the middle of nowhere” in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Current Residence
Hannover; capital of Lower Saxony.

Fun Fact: Hannover has the "largest in-city forest in Europe" called "Eilenriede", double the size of Central Park in New York.

Graduate Degree
Biologist, Dr. rer. nat (equivalent to PhD) earned from Braunschweig University of Technology (Germany)

Postdoc Work
2023: Habilitation at Hannover Medical School (MHH); Since 2009: Principal Investigator (PI) at Hannover Medical School (MHH; Germany); 2007-2009: PI at A*Star Institute of Medical Biology (IMB, Singapore); 2005-2007: Program Manager, ES Cell International Pte Ltd, Singapore; 2004-2005: Senior Scientist, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf (Germany; Institute of Transplant Diagnostic & Cell Therapy); 1999-2003: Project Manager at Biotech company Cardion AG (Erkrath, Germany)

Current Position
Principal Investigator at Hannover Medical School (MHH)

ISSCR Participation
Speaker, PSC-Derived Cell Therapy Symposium in Boston, USA

• What is the current focus of your research?

  There is two separate but interrelated research foci:

  1. Bioprocess development for the stirred tank bioreactor (STBR)-based mass-cultivation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and their progenies (including cardiomyocytes, macrophages, endothelial cells, and endodermal lineages) in suspension culture in clinical scale. In academic and industrial collaborations, this work aims at establishing cell therapies e.g. for heart repair as well as for advanced in vitro models for hPSC-based drug screenings.

  2. Investigating basic mechanisms of early human development and mesendoderm priming in vitro has led us into hPSC-derived “heart-forming organoids” (HFOs). These are highly patterned, complex multi-tissue models recapitulating aspects of native heart, foregut (lung and liver), vasculature and blood development in embryogenesis and in congenital diseases. Based on own intellectual property (IP), the HFO model is applied for investigating 4D development via combining spatial transcriptomic and whole mount IF staining,  as well as drug- and toxicity- screenings.

• How would you explain the significance of this work to a lay audience?

  Rather than treating symptoms, cell therapy has the potential to cure diseases by repairing a damaged organ via providing new, functional cells. Our research aims at establishing efficient, cost effective methods for generating functional human cells in culture, for fuelling innovative cell therapies such as the repair of failing hearts.

  We are also investigating early steps of human development by new cell culture models, to understand unexplored mechanisms of human organogenesis and related congenital disease of the heart, blood vessels, blood, and lung development.

• What do you find most rewarding about your work?

  While I’m growing older, I am staying closely attached to new generation(s) of ambitious young scientists; promoting them in their development is most rewarding!

  Having the chance to shape a research field with own ideas is extremely rewarding!

  I’m most thankful to the daily interchange with the fantastic colleagues in my group, who burn for their project, who challenge my everyday, who are eager to create new ideas, to collaborate and move projects forward. This keeps me motivated, is most rewarding (!!!) despite the substantial and sometimes depressing challenges, such as the constant responsibility for successful fundraising.

• What led you to become a scientist and to stem cell research?

  As a developmental biologist, originally working on mouse development, I was lucky to be part of the revolution(s) in the field such as the description of human ESC and human iPSC cells. Using these cells, the interface of developmental biology, biotechnology and regenerative medicine is most exciting to me.

• What guidance would you share in talking with trainees interested in pursuing your area of research?

  Trying to understand the overarching picture and current directions of your research field; often, the interphase of academic and industrial research can provide highly fruitful ideas and opportunities.

  This research field is a fantastic interface between basic and applied biology, biomedicine, drug development, all type of engineering and complex bioinformatics! It’s worth the efforts, but – due to its complexity, inter-disciplinarily and thus inter-dependence – you must be prepared to spend time and overcome frustration (most likely as in other research areas as well....). 

• Do you have any mentors or individuals who have inspired you in your stem cell work?

  I was lucky and I am grateful for outstanding mentors and collaboration partners over the years, including:

  Thomas Braun, Max Plank director in Bad-Nauheim (Germany) was greatly inspiring my PhD thesis on skeletal muscle development in the mouse model.

  Christine Mummery, former president of the ISSCR, enabled my first hands on experience with hESC cells and their cardiac differentiation and has inspired me ever since by her openness and detailed knowledge in since and the scientists behind the research.

  Loren Field, Indiana University School of Medicine (Indiana, US), taught me how to critically investigate cardiomyocyte proliferation in the heart and – importantly - how to critically assesses high impact publications.

  Peter Zandstra, director of the Michael Smith Laboratories (University of British Columbia, Canada), who inspired and mentored me on his ground breaking ideas for the mass cultivation of stem cells in suspension culture, when he was still at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering in Toronto.

  Jürgen Lehmann, former head of cell culture technology at the University of Bielefeld (Germany), was instrumental for introducing me to bioreactor technology for mammalian cell cultivation in suspension culture and for making contacts to highly educated young researchers in biotechnology.

  Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, former gynaecologist at the Rambam Medical Center (Haifa, Israel) who was instrumental for the derivation of hESC, became a mentor and friend who introduced me to outstanding collaboration partners in Israel since our first shared Keystone congresses in the early 2000s. 

  Alan Colman, former CEO of the biotech start-up ES-Cell International (Singapore) gave me the opportunity to establish technologies for the cultivation of human ESC in suspension culture; importantly, Alan is one of the most entertaining scientists I got to know!

  Ulrich Martin not only connected me to hiPSC research, but also provided an extremely fruitful environment for applied stem cell research and regenerative medicine at Hannover Medical School (Germany) in the recent 15 years of my career.

• How do you spend your free time?

  What free time?!

  I love gardening (a bit of bonsai culture), skiing, hiking, fishing and canoeing with family and friends and my daily workout as well.

• What is something your peers would be surprised to learn about you?

  I like wordplay, “nursery rhymes” and trying to create a bit of own “funny poetry”.  I’m not very talented but I’m happy to be a bit entertaining by creating a bit of personal rhymes, for example, as a birthday surprise for friend and family or when giving a laudation for PhD students in my group, after they completed their thesis. These laudations have turned into a nice tradition at the international PhD program in “Regenerative Sciences” here at Hannover medical School (https://www.mhh.de/en/phd-regsci).

• What do you most value about your membership with the ISSCR?

  Being ISSCR member for 25 years is like being part of the leading global network in stem cell science, which has turned into a “dynamic, growing family” over the years. This is complemented with the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN), “my smaller family”, who is also nicely connected to the ISSCR Annual Meeting via the “WunderBar” event, which has been so nicely established by Daniel Besser (GSCN Coordinator) in the recent decade.