Our Team

Harald Langer studied medicine at the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg and TU Munich, Germany. After training in general and interventional cardiology and conducting postdoctoral research in the Experimental Immunology Branch at the NIH, Bethesda, USA, he was appointed in 2018 W3 Professor for Cardiovascular Inflammation at the University of Tübingen, Germany and later that year Director of the Department for Cardiology, Angiology and Intensive Care Medicine and Professor of Cardiology at the University Heart Center Lübeck, Germany. There, he founded the section for Translational Cardiology. In 2022, he moved to Mannheim/Heidelberg and now works as there as Deputy Director of the I. Medical Clinic at the University Clinic Mannheim. In 2024, he was furthermore appointed as W3 Professor for Cardiovascular Systems Biology at Heidelberg University. 
Prof. Langer is a principal investigator at the European Centre for Angioscience (ECAS), is active within the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (Mannheim/ Heidelberg) and the newly founded Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC). His main research areas include interventional cardiology and structural heart diseases with a particular interest in diseases of the mitral valve. He also has a basic and translational focus in Cardioimmunology and Cardiovascular Systems Biology.

Manuela Sauter studied Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Austria, and received her Master of Science degree in 2010. She then joined the group of Prof. Langer at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany, for her PhD, investigating the role of dendritic cells in atherosclerosis, and received a Dr. rer. nat. in Biochemistry in 2019. After her PhD, Dr. Sauter continued to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Langer at the University Hospital of Lübeck and subsequently at the University Hospital of Mannheim.

Manuela Sauter's research focuses on the role of immune cells in cardiovascular diseases and mechanisms of atherosclerosis. She is a DZHK member and active within the newly founded Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC).

Xiao Liang received his Bachelor's degree in Clinical Medicine from Harbin Medical University in 2012. He continued at the same university and completed his Master's degree in 2015, where his research focused on parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells and their effects on myocardial infarction in mice. From 2015 to 2023, he worked on research related to immune-inflammatory responses and atherosclerosis. His studies involved examining immune cell functions and vascular changes associated with atherosclerosis. 
In September 2023, he began MD studies at Heidelberg University in Germany. His current research investigates immune cell surface markers in atherosclerosis, with the aim of better understanding their role in atherosclerosis. His background includes experience with mouse models of cardiovascular disease, flow cytometry, and basic molecular biology techniques. His work has primarily focused on the intersection of immunology and cardiovascular pathology.

Markus Kleber studied biology with a focus on molecular biology at the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg. During his doctoral thesis he worked on translation initiation signals in procaryotes. In 2008 he joined the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study group from Prof. Winfried März and his research interests changed to genetic and biochemical markers of cardiovascular diseases. Since 2011 he has been working for the medical faculty Mannheim and was principal investigator of EU-funded projects. Since 2020, he has also been working on the genetic diagnosis of cardiomyopathies and lipometabolic disorders at the SYNLAB MVZ für Humangenetik Mannheim.  He joined the I. Medical Clinic at the University Clinic Mannheim in April 2025 and currently works for the EU-funded project TO_AITION.

Angela P. Moissl studied Applied Geosciences at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, and received her Master of Science degree in 2014. She completed certified postgraduate training in Environmental Toxicology (Ecotoxicologist), accredited by the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry – German Language Branch (SETAC GLB). She further specialised in statistical data analysis and biomonitoring and joined the Institute of Nutritional Sciences at Friedrich Schiller University Jena for her doctoral research. Her PhD, conducted within the BMBF-funded Nutricard project, focused on statistical modelling of nutritional and metabolic biomarkers in relation to cardiovascular mortality using data from the LURIC cohort.
Since 2016, Miss Moissl has been working with the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study, contributing to multiple biostatistics, epidemiology, and biomarker analysis projects. Since 2023, she has been based at the Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, where she is currently responsible for coordinating and implementing the 20-year follow-up of the LURIC cohort. In the EU-funded project TIMELY (Horizon 2020), she applies biostatistical and data mining methods to investigate time-sensitive cardiovascular risk factors. Since April 2025, she has been involved in the To_Aition consortium, focusing on the interplay between inflammation, depression, and cardiovascular outcomes.
Her research integrates advanced statistical methodology, biomarker-based risk prediction, and interdisciplinary analyses of environmental, nutritional, and genetic factors. She is particularly interested in bridging environmental toxicology and clinical epidemiology to advance understanding of cardiometabolic and health outcomes.