Daniel Alvarez-Fischer, MD

Clinician scientist

Name: Daniel Alvarez-Fischer

Position/Title: Postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Neurogenetics and resident at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Medical Director Ambulance Centre); University of Lübeck

Address: Institute of Neurogenetics and Section of Clinical and Molecular Neurogenetics at the Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck
Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany

Phone: +49-451-500 98700; Fax: +49-451-500 98704
Email: daniel.alvarez@neuro.uni-luebeck.de

Animal models of neurodegenerative disorders, the role of developmental factors in the etiology of Parkinson disease and their impact on mitochondrial function.

Education:

04/1995 – 06/2002 Studies of Medicine at the Philipps University Marburg

04/1997 – 10/2004 MD thesis and related projects; Philipps University Marburg, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology (Director: Prof. J. Krieglstein) in the group ‘Reward and Movement Disorders’ (Prof. K. Kuschinsky)
„Mechanismen der Sensibilisierung durch wiederholte Gabe von Kokain als Baustein in der Entwicklung psychischer Abhängigkeit bei der Suchterkrankung am experimentellen Tiermodell der Ratte“ MD (Dr. med.)
 

Scientific training:

04/1997 – 06/2000 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Philipps University Marburg, supervised by Prof. K. Kuschinsky
Mechanisms of sensitization to cocaine under aspects of reward and related projects

07/2002 – 02/2006 Department of Neurology Philipps University Marburg (Director: Prof. Wolfgang H. Oertel) in the group of Movement disorders, supervised by PD Dr. A. Hartmann

02/2006 – 06/2009 Pitié-Salpêtrière/INSERM U679 and Collège de France/CNRS UMR8542 in Paris, France, supervised by Prof. A. Hartmann, Prof. A. Prochiantz and Prof. E. C. Hirsch
Role of Engrailed in Parkinson’s disease

07/2009 – 07/2012 Department of Neurology Philipps University Marburg (Director: Prof. Wolfgang H. Oertel) in the group of Movement disorders, supervised by Prof. G. U. Höglinger
Role of electrical activity on survival of DA neurons

08/2012 – present Institute of Neurogenetics (University of Lübeck), supervised by Prof. Dr. C. Klein
Interface of developmental factors and mitochondrial function
2002 First price at “Route 28” workshop, 2002, (Stem) cell based therapeutic approaches for Parkinson's disease, Frauenchiemsee, Germany

2004 Travel grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2006 Post-doctoral fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Title: “Integrated project LSHM-CT_2003-503330“

Co-Principal Investigator (Principal Investigator: Wolfgang H. Oertel, G. U. Höglinger)
Agency: Europäische Union (EU)
Type: Research Grant
Funding period: 2004-2007
Amount: 60,000 €

Title: “Stem cell therapy in Parkinson’s disease”

Co-Principal Investigator (Principal Investigator: G. U. Höglinger)
Agency: Peter-Hofmann-Foundation
Type: Research Grant
Funding period: January 2005 – December 2006/2007
Amount: 50,000 €

Title: “Translational targets of Engrailed”

Principal Investigator: Daniel Alvarez Fischer
Agency: University Medical Center Giessen and Marburg (UKGM)
Type: Research Grant
Funding period: 2010
Amount: 50,000 €

Title: “Mechanisms of apamine in PD”

Principal Investigator: Daniel Alvarez Fischer
Agency: University Medical Center Giessen and Marburg (UKGM)
Type: Research Grant
Funding period: February 2010-January 2012
Amount: 52,800 €

Title: “Molecular mechanisms modifying disease expression”

Principal Investigators: Daniel Alvarez Fischer, Ana Westenberger, Frank Kaiser, Ingrid Bræne
Agency: University of Lübeck, Germany
Type: Application Package (Paketantrag)
Funding period: January-October 2015
Amount: 100,000 €

  1. Balck A, Schaake S, Kuhnke NS, Domingo A, Madoev H, Margolesky J, Dobricic V, Alvarez-Fischer D, Laabs BH, Kasten M, Luo W, Nicolas G, Marras C, Lohmann K, Klein C, Westenberger A. Genotype-Phenotype Relations in Primary Familial Brain Calcification: Systematic MDSGene Review. Mov Disord 2021;11:2468-2480.
  2. Reyes CJ, Laabs BH, Schaake S, Lüth T, Ardicoglu R, Rakovic A, Grütz K, Alvarez-Fischer D, Jamora RD, Rosales RL, Weyers I, König IR, Brüggemann N, Klein C, Dobricic V, Westenberger A, Trinh J. Brain Regional Differences in Hexanucleotide Repeat Length in X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism Using Nanopore Sequencing. Neurology. Genetics 2021;4:e608.
  3. Alvarez-Fischer D, Vernik T, Vulinovic F, Herrmann A, Westenberger A, Klein C. Transgenerational transduction of MPTP-induced alterations in a Parkinson's disease mouse model. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders 2020:88-90.
  4. Balck A, Borsche M, Grütz K, Brüggemann N, Westenberger A, Klein C, Alvarez-Fischer D. Don't do harm by diagnosis – An abnormal cranial CT: Still fa(h)r from a disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2020:116-118.
  5. Schiemenz C, Westenberger A, Tanzer K, Grütz K, Borsche M, Mahlke G, Schaake S, Rakovic A, Aherrahrou Z, Erdmann J, Klein C, Alvarez-Fischer D. Osteoclast imbalance in primary familial brain calcification: evidence for its role in brain calcification. Brain 2019;1:e1.
  6. Alvarez-Fischer D, Westenberger A. Biallelic MYORG mutations: Primary familial brain calcification goes recessive. Mov Disord 2019;3:322.
  7. Vulinovic F, Krajka V, Hausrat TJ, Seibler P, Alvarez-Fischer D, Madoev H, Park JS, Kumar KR, Sue CM, Lohmann K, Kneussel M, Klein C, Rakovic A. Motor protein binding and mitochondrial transport are altered by pathogenic TUBB4A variants. Hum Mutat 2019;12:2444.
  8. Grütz K, Volpato CB, Domingo A, Alvarez-Fischer D, Gebert U, Schifferle G, Buffone E, Wszolek ZK, Rademakers R, Ferbert A, Hicks AA, Klein C, Pramstaller PP, Westenberger A. Primary familial brain calcification in the ‘IBGC2' kindred: All linkage roads lead to SLC20A2. Mov Disord 2019;12:1901-1904.
  9. Tadic V, Westenberger A, Domingo A, Alvarez-Fischer D, Klein C, Kasten M. Primary familial brain calcification with known gene mutations: a systematic review and challenges of phenotypic characterization. JAMA Neurol 2019;4:460-467.
  10. Hebert E, Borngräber F, Schmidt A, Rakovic A, Brænne I, Weissbach A, Hampf J, Vollstedt EJ, Größer L, Schaake S, Müller M, Manzoor H, Jabusch HC, Alvarez-Fischer D, Kasten M, Kostic VS, Gasser T, Zeuner KE, Kim HJ, Jeon B, Bauer P, Altenmüller E, Klein C, Lohmann K. Functional Characterization of Rare RAB12 Variants and Their Role in Musician's and Other Dystonias. Genes (Basel) 2017;10
  11. Wagner J, Vulinović F, Grünewald A, Unger MM, Möller JC, Klein C, Michel PP, Ries V, Oertel WH, Alvarez-Fischer D. Acylated and unacylated ghrelin confer neuroprotection to mesencephalic neurons. Neuroscience 2017:137-145.
  12. Zittel S, Alvarez-Fischer D, Schweiger U, Klein C, Münchau A. Author response: Munchausen syndrome by genetics: Next-generation challenges for clinicians. Neurology 2017;3:307.
  13. Vulinovic F, Lohmann K, Rakovic A, Capetian P, Alvarez-Fischer D, Schmidt A, Weißbach A, Erogullari A, Kaiser FJ, Wiegers K, Ferbert A, Rolfs A, Klein C, Seibler P. Unraveling cellular phenotypes of novel TorsinA/TOR1A mutations. Hum Mutat 2014;9:1114-1122.
  14. Winkler S, Vollstedt EJ, Kasten M, Alvarez-Fischer D, Klein C, Lohmann K. The recurrent mutation Arg258Gln in SYNJ1 (PARK20) is not a common cause of Parkinson's disease. J Neurol 2014;4:833-834.
  15. Alvarez-Fischer D, Noelker C, Vulinović F, Grünewald A, Chevarin C, Klein C, Oertel WH, Hirsch EC, Michel PP, Hartmann A. Bee venom and its component apamin as neuroprotective agents in a Parkinson disease mouse model. PLoS One 2013;4:e61700.
  16. Lohmann K, Wilcox RA, Winkler S, Ramirez A, Rakovic A, Park JS, Arns B, Lohnau T, Groen J, Kasten M, Brüggemann N, Hagenah J, Schmidt A, Kaiser FJ, Kumar KR, Zschiedrich K, Alvarez-Fischer D, Altenmüller E, Ferbert A, Lang AE, Münchau A, Kostic V, Simonyan K, Agzarian M, Ozelius LJ, Langeveld AP, Sue CM, Tijssen MA, Klein C. Whispering dysphonia (DYT4 dystonia) is caused by a mutation in the TUBB4 gene. Ann Neurol 2013;4:537-545.