Rudolf Buchheim Award 2026: Regulation of thyroid hormone gatekeepers by thyrotropin in tanycytes

The Rudolf Buchheim Award is an annual prize awarded by the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT) to recognize outstanding work from young researchers in the fields of pharmacology and toxicology. One of the 2026 Rudolf Buchheim Award recipients, Akila Chandrasekar, investigated how hypothalamic tanycytes regulate local thyroid hormone (TH) availability through TH transporters and deiodinases in the lab of Prof. Dr. Markus Schwaninger under the guidance of PD Dr. Helge Müller-Fielitz at the University of Lübeck. Her research highlights the role of TSH, from the pars distalis, in inducing the expression of TH-gatekeeper genes Slco1c1, Dio2, and Dio3 in primary tanycytes and ex vivo hypothalamic slices. Using pharmacological approaches, she identified two parallel signaling pathways: a Gα_s/cAMP/PKA/CREB-mediated pathway which regulates the induction of Slco1c1, Dio2, and Dio3 and a Gα_q/PKC/ERK-mediated pathway that regulates the induction of Dio3. Her findings establish TSH, from the pars distalis, as a direct regulator of hypothalamic TH homeostasis and suggest a feedback mechanism enabling central adaptation to hypothyroidism.