PD Dr. med. Jan Kucera

Curriculum vitae

Education, Academic Degrees

1984-1986	High School "Gymnase cantonal du Bugnon", Lausanne, Switzerland
1986-1992	University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Medical School
Dec. 1992	M.D. Degree
1994-1998	University of Bern, Switzerland, Medical School
Oct. 1998	M.D. Doctoral Thesis "Slow conduction in cardiac tissue assessed at high spatiotemporal resolution: effects of reduced excitability, reduced cell-to-cell coupling and branching tissue geometry"
Jan. 2008	Habilitation in Physiology at the University of Bern (PD. Degree)

Professional Experience

1993	Internship, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Sector Hospital Billens, Switzerland
1993-1994	Internship, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Sector Hospital Payerne, Switzerland
1994-2000	Research assistant, University of Bern, Switzerland, Medical School, Dept. of Physiology
2000-2001	Research associate, Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Cardiac Bioelectricity Center, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
2001-2002	Research associate, Fellowship of the Swiss Foundation for Stipends in Biology and Medicine, Cardiac Bioelectricity Center, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
2002-2008	Senior research assistant, University of Bern, Switzerland, Medical School, Dept. of Physiology
2008-Present	Lecturer, University of Bern, Switzerland, Medical School, Dept. of Physiology

Research Experience

1994-2000	Dept. of Physiology, University of Bern, Switzerland (Prof. S. Rohr and Prof. A. G. Kléber) Experimental studies of fundamental mechanisms of normal and abnormal cardiac conduction at the microscopic level. Experimental studies of beat rate variability in spontaneously active cultures of cardiac myocytes. Used preparations: patterned cultures of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. Methods: multiple site optical recording of transmembrane potential and electrical recording of extracellular potential; spatiotemporal analysis of recorded data.
2000-2002	Cardiac Bioelectricity Research and Training Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA (Prof. Rudy) Theoretical studies of slow conduction in cardiac tissue with structural inhomogeneities. Methods: mathematical modeling, simulations, numerical methods.
2002-Present	Dept. of Physiology, University of Bern, Switzerland Own research using these methods.

Teaching Experience

2007-Present	Plenary lectures for medical and dental students (skeletal muscle phsiology) Plenary lectures for veterinary students (physiology of the gastrointestinal system, renal physiology, acid-base, water and electrolyte regulation).
1994-2000, 2002-Present	Physiology laboratory classes for 1st and 2nd year medical, dental and veterinary students. Topics: muscle physiology, blood pressure and circulation, electrocardiography, pulmonary spirometry, senses of vision and audition, metabolism, venous blood collection and analysis.
1998-2000, 2002-Present	Tutor in the problem based learning curriculum for medical students. Topics: cardiovascular system, endocrinology, renal function, immunology, digestive system, nutrition.
2002-Present	Advisor of one Ph.D. student and one M.D.-Ph.D. student. Examinator of preclinical medical students. Workshops on computer simulation of the electrical cardiac function for doctoral students of the Swiss Cardiovascular Research and Training Network.

Awards

1986	Award for Mathematics, High School "Gymnase Cantonal du Bugnon", Lausanne, Switzerland
1996	Asher-Hess Award of the Swiss Physiological Society, Bern, Switzerland
1998	Cardiovascular Biology Prize of the companies Warner-Lambert and Parke-Davis, Zürich, Switzerland
1998	2nd Prize of the company Novartis for an oral presentation at the "Cardiovascular Biology and Clinical Implications" meeting, Interlaken, Switzerland
2000	Eduard Adolf Stein Award of the University of Bern, Switzerland

Publications

sorted by year and first author

E. DeLange, J.P. Kucera. The transfer functions of cardiac tissue during stochastic pacing. Biophys. J. 96:294-311, 2009 DOI

A Munteanu, A.A. Kondratyev, J.P. Kucera. Analysis of damped oscillations during reentry: A new approach to evaluate cardiac restitution. Biophys. J. 94:1094-1109, 2008

S. Petitprez, T. Jespersen, E. Pruvot, D.I. Keller, C. Corbaz, J. Schläpfer, H. Abriel, J.P. Kucera. Analysis of a novel SCN5A mutation (C1850S): conduction vs. repolarization disorder hypotheses in the Brugada syndrome. Cardiovasc. Res. 78:494-504, 2008

K. Wustmann, J.P. Kucera, A. Burow, T. Stuber, B. Chappuis, P. Diem, E. Delacrétaz. Activation of electrical triggers of atrial fibrillation in hyperthyroidism. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 93:2104-2108, 2008

A.A Kondratyev, J.G.C. Ponard, A. Munteanu, S. Rohr, J.P. Kucera. Dynamic changes of cardiac conduction during rapid pacing. Am. J. Physiol. 292: H1796-H1811, 2007

J.G.C. Ponard, A.A. Kondratyev, J.P. Kucera. Mechanisms of intrinsic beating variablility in cardiac cell cultures and model pacemaker networks. Biophys. J. 92: 3734-3752, 2007

D.I. Keller, J.-S. Rougier, J.P. Kucera, N. Benammar, V. Fressart, P. Guicheney, A. Madle, M. Fromer, J. Schläpfer, H. Abriel. Brugada syndrome and fever: Genetic and molecular characterization of patients carrying SCN5A mutations. Cardiovasc. Res. 67: 510-519, 2005

S. Rohr, J.P. Kucera. Cardiac tissue architecture determines velocity and safety of propagation. Cardiac Electrophysiology: From Cell To Bedside, 4th Edition 222 - 231, 2004 ( DP. Zipes, J. Jalife eds.)

S. Rohr, R. Flückiger-Labrada, J.P. Kucera. Photolithographically defined deposition of attachment factors as a versatile method for patterning the growth of different cell types in culture. Pflugers Arch. 446:125-132, 2003

S.P. Thomas, J.P. Kucera, L. Bicher-Lehmann, Y. Rudy, J.E. Saffitz, A.G. Kléber. Impulse propagation in synthetic strands of neonatal cardiac myocytes with genetically reduced levels of connexin43. Circ. Res. 92:1209-1216, 2003

J.P. Kucera, S. Rohr, Y. Rudy. Localization of sodium channels in intercalated disks modulates cardiac conduction. Circ. Res. 91, No 12, 11761182, 2002

T.J. Hund, J.P. Kucera, N.F. Otani, Y. Rudy. Ionic charge conservation and long-term steady state in the Luo-Rudy dynamic cell model. Biophys. J. 81:3324-3331, 2001

J.P. Kucera, A.G. Kléber, S. Rohr. Slow conduction in cardiac tissue: Insights from optical mapping at the cellular level. J. Electrocardiol. 34 suppl 1:57-64, 2001

J.P. Kucera, Y. Rudy. Mechanistic insights into very slow conduction in branching cardiac tissue. A model study. Circ. Res. 89:799-806, 2001

S. Rohr, J.P. Kucera. Optical mapping of impulse propagation between cardiomyocytes. In: Opitcal Mapping of Cardiac Excitation and Arrhythmias (Eds. D.S. Rosenbaum, J. Jalife) Futura Pu pp. 113-135, 2001

A.G. Kléber, J.P. Kucera, S. Rohr. Principles of slow and discontinuous conduction. Experimental observations. In: Atrial-AV Nodal Electrophysiology: A view from the Millenium. T.N. Mazgalev, P.J. Tchou (eds), Armonik, NY Futura Publishing Co. Inc, 2000

J.P. Kucera, M.O. Heuschkel, P. Renaud, S. Rohr. Power-law behavior of beat-rate variability in monolayer cultures of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. Circ. Res. 86:1140-1145, 2000

S. Rohr, A.G. Kléber, J.P. Kucera. Optical recording of impulse propagation in designer cultures: cardiac tissue architectures inducing ultra-slow conduction. Cardiovasc. Res. 9:173-179, 1999

		Dozent I
	phone:	`++41 31 631 8759/8748`
	Fax:	`++41 31 631 4611`
	E-Mail:	kucera@pyl.unibe.ch
	office:	150/-109
	Links:	My Group

Department of Physiology

Organization

Teaching

Research

Positions

Links