People

Personal Data:

• Date of birth: April 19th, 1973
• Place of birth: Vienna Nationality: Austrian
• 1979-1991: Primary School, Secondary School (Schottengymnasium Wien)
• 1991: Studies of Biology/Genetics at the University of Vienna
• 1993: Spring term: Visiting Undergraduate at Harvard College, USA
• 1999: “Magister der Naturwissenschaften“, start of Ph.D. at Department for Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research, University of Vienna
• 2003 Ph.D Genetics (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Vienna

Career History:

• 2004: Postdoc at the Division for Biology and Pathobiology of the Skin, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna
• 2007-2008: Research Associate at the CVRC, University of Virginia (Max Kade  Fellowship)
• 2009: Assistent at the Department of Dermatology, MUV
• 2013: Assistant Professor and group leader, module head at the CDL skin aging
• 2016: Associate Professor at the Department of Dermatology/Research Division
• 2019: Habilitation (venia docendi) in the field “experimental dermatology”
• 2020: Head of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Skin Multimodal Imaging of Aging and Senescence – SKINMAGINE

Main areas of research:

The interaction of the skin with the environment is a major research topic of the Gruber workgroup. We investigate how the skin and its various cell types cope with intrinsic and extrinsic stressors and with aging. A special focus of our research is on the role that lipids and their oxidation play in skin biology. We investigate how the cytoprotective mechanisms autophagy and the antioxidant response influence the resistance to extrinsic stressors and how they modulate the cellular senescence process. Florian Gruber heads the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Skin Multimodal Imaging of Aging and Senescence, a collaborative research project on skin senescence and exposure to pollution together with Markus Schosserer’s Lab at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences of Vienna, Martina Marchetti-Deschmanns Lab at the Technical University Vienna and Chanel (France).

Awards:

2005 Posteraward ADF Innsbruck; 2007 Max Kade Fellowship (for a 1 year PostDoctoral appointment at the University of Virginia); 2010 Gustav Niebauer Preis der Öst.Ges. f. Kosmet. Dermatologie und Altersforschung; 2015 Isidor Neumann Award ÖGDV (for my PhD students); 2017 Posteraward international HNE club (for my PhD student); 2020 Arnold Rikli Award for photobiological investigations in relation to humas (Jörg Wolff Foundation and the European Society for Photobiology)

Funded projects in the last 5 years:

• 2013 - 2020 Module within the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Biotechnology of Skin Aging; Herzfelder’sche Familienstiftung Projects “LOX-1/OLR1 in aged dermis”
•  “Basigin in Aging and Senescence of Keratinocytes”; EU COST ACTION “EpilipidNet” (MC, WG Leader)
• Christian Doppler Laboratory for Skin Multimodal Imaging of Aging and Senescence (Head)
• FWF Int.Prog with D. Töröcsik (U Debrecen) "Sebaceous gland integrity in helath and diseased skin"

10 most important career papers:

Narzt MS, Pils V, Kremslehner C, Nagelreiter IM, (...), Gruber F*, Lämmermann I. (2021) Epilipidomics of Senescent Dermal Fibroblasts Identify Lysophosphatidylcholines as Pleiotropic Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype (SASP) Factors. J Invest Dermatol., S0022-202X(20)32367-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.11.020. PMID: 33333126.

Kremslehner C, Miller A, Nica R, Nagelreiter IM, (...) Gruber F. (2020) Imaging of metabolic activityadaptations to UV stress, drugs and differentiation at cellular resolution inskin and skin equivalents - Implications for oxidative UV damage. Redox Biol., 37:101583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2020.101583. PMID:32713735; PMCID: PMC7767734.

Narzt MS, Nagelreiter IM, Oskolkova O, (...), Gruber F. (2019) A novel role for NUPR1 in the keratinocytestress response to UV oxidized phospholipids. Redox Biol., 20:467-482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2018.11.006. PMID: 30466060; PMCID:PMC6243031.

Song X, Narzt MS, Nagelreiter IM, Hohensinner P, (...) Gruber F. (2017) Autophagy deficient keratinocytes display increased DNA damage, senescence and aberrant lipid composition after oxidative stress in vitro and in vivo. Redox Biol., 11:219-230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2016.12.015. PMID: 28012437; PMCID:PMC5192251.

Ni C, Narzt MS, Nagelreiter IM, Zhang CF, Larue L, (...), Gruber F. (2016) Autophagy deficient melanocytes display a senescence associated secretory phenotype that includes oxidized lipid mediators. Int J Biochem Cell Biol, 81:375-382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2016.10.006.

Rothe T, Gruber F, Uderhardt S, Ipseiz N, (...), Krönke G. (2015) 12/15-lipoxygenase-mediated enzymatic lipid oxidation regulates DC maturation and function. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 125 (5), pp. 1944-1954. https://doi.org/1172/JCI78490

Gruber F, Bicker W, Oskolkova OV, Tschachler E, and Bochkov VN (2012) A simplified procedure for semi-targeted lipidomic analysis of oxidized phosphatidylcholines induced by UVA irradiation. J Lipid Res, 53, 1232-1242; https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.D025270

Gruber F, Mayer H, Lengauer B, (...) Tschachler E (2010) NF-E2-related factor 2 regulates the stress response to UVA-1-oxidized phospholipids in skin cells. FASEB J, 24, 39-48. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.09-133520

Gruber F, Oskolkova O, Leitner A, Mildner M, (...) Leitinger N, and Tschachler E (2007) Photooxidation generates biologically active phospholipids that induce heme oxygenase-1 in skin cells. J Biol Chem, 282, 16934-16941; https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M702523200

Bochkov VN, Kadl A, Huber J, Gruber F, Binder BR, and Leitinger N (2002) Protective role of phospholipid oxidation products in endotoxin-induced tissue damage. Nature, 419, 77-81. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01023