Sarah Eder

Home Institution
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Host Institution
Molecular Cardiology Research Institute
Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston

E-Mail:
sarah.eder@berlin.de

Research Topic
see Abstract
Personal Reactions to the U.S. Experience
I am extremely glad that I had the possibility of coming to the US and working in the lab of my choice. People were open and encouraging and most of the time a lot of fun. I enjoyed tremendously the scientific discussions, which were always really relaxed and not compromised by hierarchical borders. Especially during a time where the whole world has a hard time understanding America and its political decisions, it helps to spend time in this country, in order to clarify shallow prejudices.
Greatest Difficulties Encountered
In general I did not encounter great difficulties. It was difficult, though, to estimate American judgements correctly. Things like "you would not want to walk that far" and then it turns out to be a walk of 5 to 10 minutes. I lived in Roxbury, which is supposed to be quite a bad area, and I had to encounter every day for about 2 months advice that I should be careful not to be shot. But nobody advising me had actually been to Roxbury.
Most humorous incident
There are really quite a few: Right at the beginning, a Russian postdoc was supposed to teach me how to isolate rat cardiomyocytes. His first question was not whether I had done that before. No, he asked me whether I was married, and since I said no, he figured that now we could have lunch together. Well, we never did and I can just advise to wear fake engagement rings.
Shopping in the supermarket and paying at a machine without any sales assistant. You end up spending hours there, talking to a machine, indecisive whether you should laugh or cry.
And once I came home to my roommate and I told him that I had bought a lamp. He did not quite understand and thought I had killed a lamb at work and had a facial expression just like one.

Helpful Hints for Future Students

  • Get your visa as soon as possible and try to get a visa which allows you to earn money in the US, just in case you get a chance to be paid.
  • Don't get frustrated if you don't find what you need in these huge supermarkets, just be inventive.
  • Save money before you get here, life is expensive and you want to travel.

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Abstract on Research Topic
Identification of Functional Estrogen Receptors in the Heart

Author:
Sarah Eder

Institution:
Molecular Cardiology Research Institute, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston

Purpose:
Female gender and estrogen are associated with improved heart failure prognosis, supporting that estrogen may have beneficial effects in the failing heart. The role of estrogen receptors in regulating cardiac hypertrophy and more generally, cardiomyocyte biology, remain controversial.
Estrogen has been shown to have direct effects on the vasculature (i.e. inducing vasodilation) but the question of whether estrogen can have direct effects on the heart and cardiomyocytes remains largely unanswered. We hypothesize that functional estrogen receptors alpha and beta exist within cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo.

Materials and Methods:
Real-Time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) is utilized to quantify Estrogen receptor alpha and beta mRNA within the ventricles of female mice treated with and without estrogen. Western Blotting is used to quantify Estrogen Receptor alpha and beta protein in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes and within mouse hearts from female mice treated with and without estrogen. Immunofluorescent localization of Estrogen Receptor alpha and beta in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes in vitro and in cardiomyocytes of intact mouse hearts. Use of blocking peptides and myocardial tissue from Estrogen Receptor alpha and beta knockout mice serve as negative controls for these studies. Estrogen Response Element (ERE)-Promoter-Luciferase Reporter Assays are conducted to determine whether the identified Estrogen Receptor(s) are functional at the transcriptional level. ERE-Luciferase experiments in wild type, Estrogen Receptor alpha and Estrogen Receptor beta knockout mice. The presence of luciferase within cardiomyocytes of Estrogen Receptor alpha knockout mice would support the presence of a functional Estrogen Receptor beta. Detectable luciferase in Estrogen Receptor beta knockout mice will also support the presence of a functional Estrogen Receptor alpha.

Anticipated Results and Conclusions:
Based on our own and previous data, we anticipate identifying both Estrogen Receptor alpha and beta mRNA and protein in cardiomyocytes. Further, we expect to find that these Estrogen Receptors are functional (transcriptionally active) by detecting luciferase activity both in cultured cardiac myocytes and in cardiomyocytes in the mouse heart in vivo. In the case that our hypothesis is supported by such findings, cardiac myocytes would be identified targets of estrogen and functional estrogen receptors. If we are unable to demonstrate functional Estrogen Receptors in cardiac myocytes, our hypothesis would not be supported; such findings would support that myocardial alterations from estrogen are indirect, as has been proposed recently by some investigators. If, for example, we demonstrate the presence and functionality of Estrogen Receptor alpha only within cardiomyocytes, further experiments would be conducted to identify how Estrogen Receptor alpha might modify cardiomyocyte growth due to hypertrophic stimuli using wild type and Estrogen Receptor alpha knockout mice.