Michael Jeltsch on Michael’s Domain

MPHARM milestone

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Helsinki University’s International Master’s Programme in Pharmaceutical Research, Development and Safety (MPHARM) is close to another milestone: Our first graduates are soon to submit their theses. On Thursday, we were celebrating after the MSc Theses seminar, where the first batch of students presented the results of their thesis work. At the center is Leena , our benevolent director. Not in the picture is Tomi , who deserves much of the credit for making the Drug Design and Pharmacology track such a success!

Lymphatics as the origin of the fish secondary vascular system

Thu, 26 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In zebrafish, the blood vessels of the anal fin develop from lymphatics by transdifferentiation. Karina Yaniv presented unorthodox, but very compelling data supporting this conclusion last September at the Kloster Seeon Angiogenesis meeting .Now her paper has been published in Nature .

Meet the teacher!

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Almost 30 years after starting my academic career, I started to teach at the Faculty of Pharmacy (without much pedagogic experience and education). Mostly, I teach stuff that I have real-life research experience and expertise with: Recombinant DNA technology, genetic engineering, protein production and purification, and - most notably - protein drugs. Following the University of Helsinki motto Researchers teach, teachers research . Despite my lack of experience, I was part of the Helsinki University “Meet the teacher!” feature, which is aiming at the prospective International Master’s students: https://www.facebook.com/HelsinkiUniversity/posts/10160122296028083

Michael Jeltsch: Wikimedia, Wikipedia and ResearchGate contributions

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

By contributing to Wikimedia and Wikipedia , I, as a researcher, can make reliable knowledge more accessible to society and strengthen the connection between science and the public. But why would I contribute to ResearchGate , aka “Facebook for Researchers”? Since its inception, scientists have been speculating about the ulterior motives behind starting the ResearchGate project, especially since it is a venture-capital-backed, for-profit company that has raised tens of millions of dollars from investors such as Bill Gates, Goldman Sachs, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and Benchmark. Investors do not invest that kind of money without expecting a future return. For sure, ResearchGate is a convenient place to share, find and request papers that are not Open Access. That’s how I mostly interact with it.

IVBM 2018 & 2020 (poster, talk, and virtual poster walk through)

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

IVBM 2018The International Vascular Biology Conference 2018 in the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki has been a big success so far. We received lots of positive feedback for the organization from the participants. Also my talk (“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Proteolytic Processing of VEGF-C”) and my poster received good attention.Below the poster as a PDF download.IVBM 2020The IVBM 2020 in Seoul, South Korea, moved completely online. Unfortunately, some talks are only available for a very short time (one day), and I missed already a few of those. A physical conference has the advantage that it makes sure that you can pay full attention to the event. An online event has to compete with many other issues that are trying to grab your attention.

Erkrankungen des Lymphgefäßsystems (Diseases of the Lymphatic System)

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The 6th edition of the the book Erkrankungen des Lymphgefäßsystems (Diseases of the Lymphatic System) is out. It’s a German language textbook, for which Kenny Mattonet, Jörg Wilting and myself wrote the fifth chapter (Genetic causes of primary lymphedema). Get it from here , since Amazon still sells the old, 5th edition. If you have a really good excuse why you should get one for free, mail me! I have a few copies.

Best paper award

Fri, 01 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

[

![](/sites/]( http://www.med.helsinki.fi/english/news/2015/20150505_Jeltsch.html)We have won Circulation’s 2014 Best Paper Award in the category of Basic Science. Circulation is the leading cardiology journal and the organ of the American Heart Association . Already when we published the paper (titled [/files/files/Jeltsch%20et%20al.%20-%202014%20-%20CCBE1%20Enhances%20Lymphangiogenesis%20via%20A%20Disintegrin.pdf">“CCBE1 Enhances Lymphangiogenesis via A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease With Thrombospondin Motifs-3–Mediated Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-C Activation”](/sites/<?php print $_SERVER[)), it was clear that it provided a major overhaul of our understanding of the VEGF-C growth factor and it got featured by Open Heart . The article manages to provide multiple new insights:

We got featured by Circulation!

Mon, 12 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Self Archiving and Open Access

Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I recently wrote a review article for the journal Lymphologie in Forschung ind Praxis . Its title was “Die lymphangiogenen Wachstumsfaktoren VEGF-C und VEGF-D” and it was the first paper I wrote in my mother tongue, German. This journal’s impact factor has been consistently below 1, which is not uncommon for non-English journals. However, in the big European countries like Germany, France and Italy, there are still many doctors who are not comfortable reading English. I though I’d help them out catching up on the latest in lymphatic research. Opening up access to science and visibility of science is all good, so I thought.Because my boss argued that it was a waste of time (I hope to prove him wrong - help me out here DLG !), I minimized the effort by engaging another knowledgeable German researcher at the University of Helsinki. Luckily I had already a draft when I was asked to write the review, even though I started to write it about two years ago and it was targeted for my website. When the article was published I received two physical reprints. When I tried linking to the online version of the article, I had to realize that it was behind a paywall . Because most publishers nowadays support self archiving , I asked the publisher about their policy. I presume that the publisher did not have any policy in place concerning self archiving, because they said they would agree to it, but I would have to get the green light from the board of directors of the DLG .I really hope to get this permission because this is the only way I can fulfill reprint request without hassle (yes I could copy the pages and send them by post (but aren’t we living in the 21st century?). If I won’t get the permission, one legal and easy way to distribute this article would be to put a pre-print version (i.e. the manuscript that I wrote) online. Luckily the copyrights of the publisher cover only the published version and not the pre-print versions. Others have done it this way (and they attached a list of the changes, that were made to make the pre-print version identical to the published version). This is a suboptimal solution, but maximizing accessibility and visibility. My University has a loose requirement to publish only in Open Access journals. However, exceptions to this policy of the University of Helsinki concerning Open Access are made on a regular basis, but they will get more and more difficult as the EU tightens their funding policy including the requirements for Open Access to research results . According to the EU’s interpretation, a journal could be considered Open Access if it allows for self archiving of the published article, self archiving being the second, “green” route to Open Access. The Academy of Finland (my main funding source) has a similar interpretation: “We further recommend that Academy-funded researchers publish their articles in open-access scientific journals, if there are online journals in the field in question that are at least of the same high quality as traditional subscription journals. The articles can also be saved in open-access electronic archives.” For employees of Helsinki University, self archiving is mandatory since 2010 .That makes sense to me: As a scientist I work with tax payers’ money; therefore all tax payers should have access to the results of my work. Even though I worked for this review only in my spare time, technically the requirements still apply as I used a computer, that was paid with tax payers’ money… Stay tuned and if you need the article now (and don’t want to wait for the DLG to decide), please e-mail me!

Hobbies

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Running

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I have done it all between 1500 meters and 100 km. But that was 15 years ago, and now I only run to the fridge and back during the commercial brakes in my favourite TV show. Apart from that, I visit once in a while the home page of Runner’s World to get some inspiration.Believe it or not, I took part in the Helsinki City Marathon on August 2nd, 2003. I finished 1857th with a brutto time of 4:10:02 and a netto time of 4:06:50 .

Comment êtes-vous arrivé ici?

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Academic Portfolio 2011

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This is my Academic Portfolio in PDF format. Since it is public, I had to black out confidential information concerning confidential ongoing collaborations, my research plans and the contract research I am doing for Vegenics Ltd./Circadian Technologies . I assembled this for my application for the title of Adjunct Professor .

VEGF-C/VEGFR-2 complex structure took 13 years to solve

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Finally our paper was accepted for publication in PNAS (downloadable also from here ). I started the project by making the first construct 13 years ago, but it went nowhere for the first 9 years due to insufficient concentration of efforts and a few unlucky choices in the experimental design. I opted for bacterial protein first, but although the refolding worked, it was very inefficient (Ala mutation and a smart trimming of N- and C-terminus. More…

Neulimburg - Die Siedlung im Wald

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The village of Blota was founded in 1771. On Prussian orders, German settlers from the County of Limburg in Hesse set off with their carts, tools and livestock. This is also where the village’s German name, Neulimburg, comes from. Initially, 300 hectares of woodland were cleared and the resulting land distributed amongst the 30 or so farmers. The loamy soil was heavy and not very fertile. To improve yields, a three-field crop rotation system was adopted. Cereal crops were grown on two fields, whilst the third was left fallow. Later, by official order, potatoes and sugar beet were cultivated, and cattle breeding was also taken up. Straw became an export commodity for the army. In the second half of the 18th century, arable farming was intensified and the cultivation of fodder crops such as clover and fodder beet began. Vegetables were grown in the gardens behind the houses, whilst cows grazed in the front gardens. The village was a linear settlement. The houses were made of wood and thatched. Two rooms and a kitchen with washing facilities were separated from the servants’ quarters by a corridor. The corridor led round the back to the stables and the cellar.

Unlocking the drains

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Nice article by Phyllida Brown in Nature describing the discovery of the VEGF-C/VEGFR-3 signalling axis, and how research on the lymphatic system turned into a hot topic: https://www.nature.com/articles/436456a .

Start with Science

Tue, 31 Dec 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to my domain. I am Michael Jeltsch, a researcher and teacher in biomedical science, and this blog serves as a repository for my thoughts, rants, and my commitment to the scientific method. I hold the old-fashioned opinion that the world is knowable because it follows the laws of nature. Within the realm of the empirical, you don’t get to invoke magic or the supernatural. And science is - by a large margin - the best set of methods for investigating and understanding the natural world.

Michael Jeltsch’s PhD thesis

Mon, 25 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000

My doctoral thesis has been published: Michael Jeltsch VEGFR-3 Ligands and Lymphangiogenesis, Helsinki 2002. The public defence will take place in Biomedicum, Helsinki, on November 29th, 2002.

Lab seminar: Cystine knot proteins

Thu, 22 Aug 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Lab seminar: Chicken kick ass

Wed, 13 Jun 2001 00:00:00 +0000

High school and degree certificates

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000