Singhal Lab
Research
Research Focus
Mechanism-guided targeting of angiocrine signals to limit metastatic progression
Vascular endothelium instructs the formation of a conducive premetastatic niche to allow incoming malignant cells to colonize a distant organ. Interrogating crosstalk between endothelial cells and the rest of the stromal cells (immune and mesenchymal cells), we identify therapeutic vulnerabilities to limit metastatic progression.
Vascular rhythms in health and disease
Earth’s rotation imposes a daily day-night cycle generating physiological rhythms including awake-sleep and feeding-fasting, thereby necessitating endogenous circadian clock across all organs in our body. Taking a systems biology approach, we interrogate the influence of vascular rhythms on sustaining diurnally oscillatory homeostatic organ function and in pruning microenvironmental response to disease progression.
Our Team
from top left to bottom right: Gladys Hofsetz, Dr. Miki Kamiyama, Anna Babin-Ebell, Franziska Pilz, Dr. Mahak Singhal, Yifang Mao, Marlene Hoffarth, Lorna Wessels
Mahak Singhal, Group Leader
Tracing circadian changes in organotypic vascular niches
Mahak.Singhal{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71453
Miki Kamiyama, Postdoc
Interrogating vascular responsiveness to inflammatory signals during metastatic tumor progression
Miki.Kamiyama{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71512
Anna Babin-Ebell, PhD Student
Synergistic targeting of vascular and immune signals to limit metastatic progression
Anna.Babin-Ebell{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71514
Yifang Mao, PhD Student
Exploiting RBC-hepatocyte interdependency for treating liver pathologies
Yifang.Mao{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71514
Lorna Wessels, PhD Student
Developing algorithms for time-resolved NGS data
Lorna.Wessels{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71512
Technical Assistants
Marlene Hoffarth
Gladys Hofsetz
Marlene.Hoffarth{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71513
Gladys.Hofsetz{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
Franziska Pilz
Franziska.Pilz{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de
0621/383-71513
Publications
Babin-Ebell Gonçalves A*, Mao Y*, Baljkas T*, Wiedmann F, Eis L, Pilz F, Winkler M, Kürschner-Zacharias SW, Hoffarth M, Funaya C, Shahidi R, Géraud C, Wu CC, Goerdt S, Reiners-Koch PS, Singhal M: A perfusion-independent high-throughput method to isolate liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. Commun Biol, 8(1):22, 2025 (*equally contributing first authors).
Singhal M*,#, Gengenbacher N*, Abdul Pari AA*, Kamiyama M, Hai L, Kuhn B, Kallenberg DM, Kulkarni SR, Camilli C, Preuss SF, Leuchs B, Mogler C, Espinet E, Besemfelder E, Heide D, Heikenwalder M, Sprick MR, Trumpp A, Krijgsveld J, Schlesner M, Hu J, Moss SE, Greenwood J, Augustin HG#: Temporal multi-omics identifies LRG1 as a vascular niche instructor of metastatic colonization. Sci Transl Med, 13:eabe6805, 2021 (*equally contributing first authors; # Co-corresponding authors).
🡪 Featured as a cover story in the September issue of Science Translational Medicine.
Gengenbacher N*, Singhal M*, Mogler C, Hai L, Milde L, Abdul Pari AA, Besemfelder E, Fricke C, Baumann D, Gehrs S, Utikal J, Felcht M, Hu J, Schlesner M, Offringa R, Chintharlapalli SR, Augustin HG: Timed Ang2-targeted therapy identifies the Angiopoietin-Tie pathway as key regulator of fatal lymphogenous metastasis. Cancer Discov, 11:424-445, 2021 (*equally contributing first authors).
Singhal M*, Gengenbacher N*, La Porta S*, Gehrs S, Shi J, Kamiyama M, Bodenmiller DM, Fischl A, Schieb B, Besemfelder E, Chintharlapalli S, Augustin HG: Preclinical validation of a novel metastasis-inhibiting Tie1 function-blocking antibody. EMBO Mol Med, 12:e11164, 2020 (*equally contributing first authors).
🡪 Accompanied by an editorial by Prof. Robert Kerbel. EMBO Mol Med, 12:e12355, 2020
Abdul Pari AA*, Singhal M*, Hübers C, Mogler C, Schieb B, Gampp A, Gengenbacher N, Reynolds LE, Terhardt D, Géraud C, Utikal J, Thomas M, Goerdt S, Hodivala-Dilke KM, Augustin HG#, Felcht M#: Tumor cell-derived Angiopoietin-2 promotes metastasis in melanoma. Cancer Res, 80:2586-98, 2020 (*equally contributing first authors; # Co-corresponding authors).
Singhal M*, Liu X*, Inverso D, Jiang K, Dai J, He H, Bartels S, Li W, Pari AAA, Gengenbacher N, Besemfelder E, Hui L, Augustin HG#, Hu J#: Endothelial cell fitness dictates the source of regenerating liver vasculature. J Exp Med 215:2497-508, 2018 (*equally contributing first authors; # Co-corresponding authors).
🡪 Accompanied by an editorial by Prof. Luisa Iruela-Arispe. J Exp Med 215:2480-482, 2018
Kumar A*, Singhal M*, Chopra C*, Srinivasan S, Surabhi RP, Kanumuri R, Tentu S, Jagadeeshan S, Sundaram S, Ramanathan K, Shankar Pitani R, Muthuswamy B, Abhijit S, Nair AS, Venkatraman G, Rayala SK: Threonine 209 phosphorylation on RUNX3 by Pak1 is a molecular switch for its dualistic functions. Oncogene, 35: 4857-65, 2016 (*equally contributing first authors).
Jagadeeshan S*, Krishnamoorthy YR*, Singhal M*, Subramanian A*, Mavuluri J, Lakshmi A, Roshini A, Baskar G, Ravi M, Joseph LD, Sadasivan K, Krishnan A, Nair AS, Venkatraman G, Rayala SK: Transcriptional regulation of fibronectin by p21-activated kinase-1 modulates pancreatic tumorigenesis. Oncogene 34: 455-64, 2015 (*equally contributing first authors).
Contact Us
We are continuously looking for motivated students to join our team!
Interested candidates should send their application to Dr. Mahak Singhal via email.
Dr. Mahak Singhal
European Center for Angioscience
Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University
Tridomus B
Ludolf-Krehl-Straße 7-11
68167 Mannheim
Mahak.Singhal{at}medma.uni-heidelberg.de