Since 2010, Birgit Liss is the Director of the Institute for Applied Physiology at the University of Ulm. Since 2019, she also holds visiting Fellowships / visiting Professorships at New College and Linacre College, at the University of Oxford. Prior, (and after her Postdoc time at Oxford), she was one of the first Junior-Professors in Germany, at the University of Marburg.

Birgit Liss and her team study electrical activity pattern and their underlying molecular mechanisms of neurons that release the transmitter dopamine. The loss of these brain cells leads to the typical motor-symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. However, dysfunctions of the dopamine system are also present in other diseases, such as schizophrenia and attention deficit syndromes (ADS). The aim of Birgit’s research is a better understanding of the complex functions of dopamine neuron in health and disease, to deliver a basis for novel therapeutic strategies.

As a fellow at HIAS, Birgit Liss will further this line of research, with a focus on the homeostatic interplay of distinct ion channels and neural calcium sensors. These proteins play important – but mechanistically still unclear – roles for dopamine neuron function and dysfunction, particularly in Parkinson’s disease.

Her cooperation partner is Prof. Dr. med. Christian Kubisch, director of the Institute for Human Genetics at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

Birgit Liss‘ HIAS Fellowship is provided by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the federal and state funds acquired by Universität Hamburg in the framework of its Excellence Strategy.