Ludwig Neyses (born 24 August 1954) is a German cardiologist, physician-scientist, and academic administrator. He is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Luxembourg, where he previously served as Vice President for Research, and he has held a joint appointment as Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. His research has concentrated on calcium signalling and the molecular mechanisms underlying heart failure and cardiac hypertrophy, with a particular focus on the plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA).
Early life and education Neyses was born on August 24, 1954 in Stuttgart, West Germany, the son of a surgeon. He studied medicine at the University of Mainz in Germany, spent a year at the University of Montpellier in France and continued at Westminster Hospital Medical School in London. He has worked in biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and in cardiac molecular biology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States.
Academic career Between 1982 and 1990, Neyses underwent specialist training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University Hospitals of Zurich, Switzerland, and Bonn, Germany. He also trained in interventional cardiology at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, in the United States. His scientific training during this period also included a fellowship at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He received his speciality accreditation in internal medicine in 1989 and in cardiology in 1993, and was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1991. From 1994 to July 2001, Neyses served as Associate Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University Hospital of Würzburg, Germany. In this role he acted as attending physician (Oberarzt and apl. Professor) for both cardiology and general internal medicine patients as well as in hospital management. It was during this period that his group published foundational work on the regulatory role of the plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA), including the landmark 2001 paper in the Journal of Cell Biology demonstrating PMCA's function as a major regulator of nitric oxide synthase. In 2001, Neyses was appointed Professor of Cardiology at the University of Manchester. He subsequently became Chair of Medicine/Cardiology and Head of the Cardiovascular Medicine Research Group at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, a post he held until March 2013. During his tenure at Manchester, Neyses founded and led the European Studies Programme at Manchester in which selected medical students received intensive training in Medical German, French, or Spanish and, in their fifth year, spent time at partner universities in France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. In December 2012, the University of Luxembourg's governing board proposed Neyses as the new Vice President for Research, a nomination that required confirmation by the Luxembourg Ministry of Higher Education and Research. In January 2013, he was appointed to a part-time joint appointment at Manchester while heading Luxembourg's research strategy. He took up the position in April 2013, succeeding Dr Luciënne Blessing, and was charged with developing Luxembourg's research priorities as well as a medical school. He subsequently became Emeritus Professor at the University of Luxembourg after completing his term. He also served as a partner and consultant at management4health AG, a firm specialising in health services and care delivery, hospital and quality management, and research and education.
Research Neyses's scientific work has centred on the molecular mechanisms by which calcium signalling governs cardiac function and contributes to cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. His most influential contributions relate to the plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA) and its unexpected role as a signalling scaffold rather than merely a calcium extrusion pump thus establishing a potential new route to treatment of heart failure by interference with PMCA function. A pivotal finding from his group was the demonstration that PMCA4b directly interacts with neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) via a PDZ domain, effectively regulating a compartmentalised nitric oxide signalling microdomain in cardiomyocytes. This interaction was shown to regulate the cardiac beta-adrenergic response and, when disrupted, to alter cardiac contractility. The relevance of the PMCA in vivo was shown in a mouse model of cardiac hypertrophy. His group also established that PMCA4b interacts with the calcineurin/NFAT pathway, inhibiting hypertrophic signalling in cardiomyocytes, and identified a novel interaction between PMCA4b and the proapoptotic tumour suppressor RASSF1. Beyond cardiac biology, Neyses pursued research into blocking calcium signalling as a strategy against malaria, supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and explored the therapeutic potential of calcium pump inhibition as a male contraceptive.
Selected publications Neyses's most highly cited works include the following:
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