Florentina Porsch, PhD
Medical University of Vienna,
Department of Laboratory Medicine, KILM
Anna Spiegel Research Building
Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT25.2, Level 6
1090 Vienna, Austria
ORCID: 0000-0002-2633-6632
Florentina Porsch studied Molecular Medicine with a focus on haematology at Imperial College London. She obtained her PhD at the Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the Medical University of Vienna, where she investigated inflammatory mechanisms in atherosclerosis and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). During her doctoral training, she also conducted research at the University of Cambridge, focusing on dyslipidaemia-associated effects on B cell biology. Since 2022, she has been a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Christoph Binder at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.
Know-how and Research Interests
Florentina Porsch has extensive expertise in experimental and translational research in cardiometabolic disease, with a strong focus on immunological mechanisms driving atherosclerosis. Her work combines in vivo models of atherosclerosis and liver disease with advanced immunological and molecular techniques, including flow cytometry, ELISA, and single-cell RNA sequencing, to dissect immune cell function and inflammatory pathways.
She has a particular interest in macrophage biology, adaptive immunity, and the interface between chronic inflammation and cardiometabolic diseases. She has helped define the function of TREM2 in atherosclerosis and MASLD, as well as its role as a disease marker. Her research further integrates experimental findings with clinical data to identify and validate biomarkers relevant for cardiovascular disease progression.
She has contributed to multiple high-impact publications in journals such as Nature, European Heart Journal, Immunity, Journal of Hepatology, Nature Cardiovascular Research, and Nature Reviews Cardiology. Moreover, she has been actively involved in the development of several successful multinational grants, including an EU Horizon grant, a Leducq consortium grant, an FWF collaborative grants, and an FWF doc:funds programme. Her scientific work has been recognised with multiple awards, including the Helmut Sinzinger Prize and the Dora Brücke-Teleky Award, as well as several presentation and publication prizes at international conferences.
Main Research Interests
Understanding the role of antibody responses in atherosclerosis and cardiometabolic diseases, and harnessing these mechanisms for the development of novel immune-targeted therapies
Elucidating the mechanisms underlying accelerated atherosclerosis in patients with autoimmune diseases
- Developing biomarker-guided strategies for cardiovascular risk stratification to enable precision-based therapeutic approaches in patients at increased cardiovascular risk