Young Awardees in Endocrinology Presenting Hot Topics

The importance of scientific societies is of upmost importance for a multitude of reasons. One that should be an affair of the heart for all societies is the promotion of young scientists. The German Society of Endocrinology (DGE) has a longstanding tradition in promoting excellence in science and part of this strategy is the fostering of young academics. The DGE provides a forum especially for young endocrinologist, Young Active Research in Endocrinology (YARE), founded over 20 years ago. It is key goal of YARE to provide opportunities to meet and build up personal scientific networks independently of senior researcher. To promote these scientists, the DGE is providing travel awards (YARE awards) for scientific meetings for young members of the society as part of their scientific education. In addition to these kinds of awards and even more importantly for career development, the DGE is launching awards for specific scientific projects. As endocrinology is very multidisciplinary, these awards are given annually for many topics such as for neuroendocrinology (Ernst and Berta Scharrer prize), adrenal research (Bruno Allolio prize), thyroid research (von Basedow prize) and many more (please see https://www.endokrinologie.net/preistraeger.php).

For many young scientist, an award from the DGE is one of the milestone for their future career. This is specifically exemplified by the fact, that many of the leading positions in endocrinology are held by scientists who were awarded by the DFG at one point during their career. The investment of the DGE to these extraordinary talented scientists pays off, because these scientists are the scientific hubs of the society building up strong research networks that are supported by the German research council DFG and that are now suitable to train more young scientists in graduate colleges that are sometimes as part of collaborative research consortia (CRCs) at one or more places in Germany.

As example for such an impressive development is the Clinical Research Center (CRC)/Transregio 205 „The Adrenal: Central Relay in Health and Disease” with participating centers at the university hospitals of Dresden, Würzburg and Munich. The CRC is headed by the spokespersons Stefan Bornstein, Martin Fassnacht and Martin Reincke.

This years Bruno Allolio prize goes to Dr. Nicole Bechmann for her work: “Hypoxia inducible factor 2 α (HIF2α) promotes a pro-metastatic phenotype in pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas” who is member of the CRC 205 center in Dresden

Another example is the transregio Clinical Research Center 296 Locotact (local control of thyroid hormone action) which takes place in Essen, Lübeck and Berlin. All of the three spokespersons (Dagmar Führer, Essen, Jens Mittag, Lübeck and Heiko Krude, Berlin) are former awardees of the von Basedow prize. Doctoral students from all three spokespersons receive DGE prizes over the last years indicating the impressive boost that such research prize are able to provoke. Of note, this years von Basedow prize goes to Dr. Sarah Paisdzior for her manuscript: “A new mechanism in THRA resistance: the first disease-associated variant leading to an increased inhibitory function of THRA2”, member of the Institute for Endocrinology of Heiko Krude in Berlin.

Dr. Rima Chakaroun from Leipzig was awarded with the Schöller Jungmann and the work was entitled “Far from the gut but still relevant? Circulating bacterial signature is linked to metabolic disease and shifts with metabolic alleviation after bariatric surgery”. The Ernst and Berta Scharrer prize was given to Dr. Ruth Hansen from Cologne (GLP-1 and hunger modulate incentive motivation depending on insulin sensitivity in humans) and Dr. Dominik Botermann from Göttingen (New insights into the role of Hedgehog signaling in somatotrophs and folliculo-stellate cells of the adult pituitary gland). The Anke May prize goes to Laura Sophie Landwehr and Jochen Schreiner from Würzburg for their work: “A novel patient-derived cell line of adrenocortical carcinoma shows a pathogenic role of germline MUTYH mutation and high tumour mutational burden”. Both are members of the CRC 205. Two YARE prizes for dissertations were awarded to Verena Schuster from Nauroth (Investigating the Effects of Sex Hormones on the Female Brain – Necessary Prerequisites and a First Insight on the Influences on Gray Matter Volume) and Dr. Dominik Botermann from Göttingen (The role of Hedgehog signalling in pituitary homeostasis in vitro and in vivo).

Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes offers this year a forum for the awardees of DGE prizes 2021 to promote their research by writing reviews on the topic of their awards. The intention of these reviews is not only open the interest for the current prize-awarding topics to members of the DGE but also to the broad readership of Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes. From the awardees, five accept this invitation and provide excellent state of the art research reviews on up to date topics.

In this issue of Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes Nicole Bechmann and co-worker focus on the role of Hypoxia inducible factor 2α (HIF2α) and its role in tumorigenesis and metastasis of pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas [1]. In a comprehensive manner, the pathophysiological role of (HIF2α) is described as well as its role as therapeutical target. Due to resistance of (HIF2α) inhibitors additional mechanisms were discussed.

The obesity epidemic is a constantly rising health problem; therefore, Ruth Hansen and co-workers asked in their review whether obesity is a matter of motivation. This review focus on neural circuits involved in incentive motivation and summarize current knowledge on the dopaminergic mesolimbic system and peripheral hormones that modulate dopaminergic transmission and thereby regulate energy intake [2].

It is current knowledge that thyroid hormones are tightly regulated, however, local control of thyroid hormone action remains to be elucidated. Sarah Paisdzior and co-workers summarize in their review the current knowledge on thyroid hormone receptor alpha2 (THRA2) which is a non thyroid-hormone binding isoform of thyroid hormone alpha that negatively influence THRA1 function. So far, the physiological role of THRA2 is largely unclear, nevertheless a mutation identified in a patients that affects THRA1 and THRA2 point to a physiological relevance of THRA2 [3].

Verena Schuster and co-worker address an important issue of females in the reproductive state, the start of the menstrual cycles and the effects on mood by changes hormonal constellations which is still only poorly understood. With functional MRI hormonal concentrations in the different phases of the cycle can not only be correlated to different brain structures but also to brain volume.

The role of bacteria signature for metabolic diseases is a hot top for quite some time. Rima Chakaroun and co-workers addressed the issue of bacterial signature in the blood in pathophysiology which is still a matter of debate [4]. This review now summaries its clinical relevance with a focus on cardiometabolic disease as well as translational aspects which may offer new routes for therapeutic avenues.

The reviews of this year prize winning awardees throw a glance to an upcoming generation of talented young scientist, which will be the new hubs for state of the art hot topics in endocrinology.

We hope that the readership of ECED will enjoy this special issue of the journal.

Publication History

Received: 09 December 2021
Received: 09 December 2021

Accepted: 09 December 2021

Article published online:
23 May 2022

• References

• 1 Bechmann N, Moskopp ML, Ullrich M. et al. HIF2alpha supports pro-metastatic behavior in pheochromocytomas/paragangliomas. Endocr Relat Cancer 2020; 27: 625-640
• 2 Hanssen R, Kretschmer AC, Rigoux L. et al. GLP-1 and hunger modulate incentive motivation depending on insulin sensitivity in humans. Mol Metab 2021; 45: 101163
• 3 Paisdzior S, Knierim E, Kleinau G. et al. A New Mechanism in THRA Resistance: The First Disease-Associated Variant Leading to an Increased Inhibitory Function of THRA2. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22
• 4 Chakaroun RM, Massier L, Heintz-Buschart A. et al. Circulating bacterial signature is linked to metabolic disease and shifts with metabolic alleviation after bariatric surgery. Genome Med 2021; 13: 105