Anne Weissbach, MD

Clinician Scientist

Name: Anne Weissbach

Position/Title: Clinician Scientist of the Institute of Neurogenetics and Neurologist of the Section of Clinical and Molecular Neurogenetics at the Department of Neurology

Address: Institute of Neurogenetics and Section of Clinical and Molecular Neurogenetics at the Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck
Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany

Phone: +49-451-31018219; Fax: +49-451-31018225
Email: anne.weissbach@uni-luebeck.de

2003-2009: Studies of Medicine at the University of Lübeck

2007-2010: Doctoral thesis „Molecular genetic studies in movement disorders “; Institute of Neurogenetics (Prof. C. Klein); University of Lübeck

2010-2015: Resident of Neurology at the Department of Neurology, University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck

2010-2015: Four research rotations (three years of protected research time) at the Institute of Neurogenetics; University of Lübeck

2015-2016: Clinical rotation at the Department of Psychiatry, University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck

2016-2017: Research fellowship at Prof. Chen’s research laboratory at the Movement Disorders Clinic, Division of Neurology, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

2018-present: Edmond J. Safra fellow in Movement Disorders (Michael J. Fox foundation)

2018-present: Clinician scientist at the Institute of Neurogenetics; University of Lübeck

2020: Habilitation (Neurology; “Clinical and neurophysiological studies in monogenic dystonia and Parkinson syndromes”)

2009: National Board of Medical Examiners Licensing Examination

2010: Schleswig-Holstein (S-H) College of Physicians General License

2016: Electroencephalography certification of the German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and Functional Imaging (DGKN)

2018: Board-certified Neurologist (S-H College of Physicians)

2018: Electromyographie certification of the German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and Functional Imaging (DGKN)

2019:  David Marsden Award of the European Dystonia Society (Dystonia Europe)

2019:  Renate Maaß Research Award of the University of Lübeck

“Motor cortex plasticity induction by pairing subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation and dorsal premotor cortical transcranial magnetic stimulation in Parkinson’s disease”

Principal Investigator: Anne Weissbach
Agency: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Type: Research Grant (Forschungsstipendium, WE 5919/11)
Funding period: 07/2016 – 04/2017
Amount: 41,544 €

 

“Neuromodulation in motor networks in genetic Parkinson syndromes”

Principal Investigator: Anne Weissbach
Agency: University of Lübeck
Type: Research Grant for own research position (Habilitationsstipendium, H03-2016)
Funding period: 05/2017 – 10/2017
Amount: 44,100 €

 

“Defining clinical and neurophysiological markers of effective deep brain stimulation treatment in dystonia”

Principal Investigator: Anne Weissbach
Agency: Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation
Type: Research Grant (2018_A55)
Funding period: 07/2018 – 06/2020
Amount: 202,497 €

 

“Cerebello-neokortikale Netzwerkveränderungen bei dystoniepatienten – Die monogenetische Myoklonus-Dystonie als cerbelläre Modelerkrankuung”

Principal Investigator: Anne Weissbach
Agency: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Art: Research Grant (WE 5919/2-1)
Funding period: 2020 – 2023
Amount: 436,279 €

  • German Society of Neurology (DGN)
  • German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and Functional Imaging (DGKN)
  • Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society (MDS)
  • German Society of Parkinson and Movement Disorders (DPG)
  • Annals of Neurology
  • Movement Disorders

Teaching

  • Bedside teaching for psychology students
  • Neurology main lecture series (selected topics)
  • Weekly seminar of non-invasive brain stimulation for psychology students
  • Weekly seminar of rare diseases (selected topics)

Invited Talks

2014: Invited speaker at the German Society of Neurology’s Annual Congress; Munich, Germany, Minisymposium: „Clinical and mutational spectrum of Parkin-/PINK1-linked Parkinson’s disease“

2015: Invited speaker at the German Society of Clinical Neurophysiology’s Annual Congress; Tübingen, Germany; Symposium: „Structure (DTI) – excitability (TMS) relationship in monogenic Parkinson syndromes – results of a multimodal approach“

2015: Invited speaker at the 19th International Congress of Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders; San Diego, USA; Parallel session: „Dopa-responsive dystonia and related disorders, treatments, long-term outcomes, and strategies for complications“

2016: Invited speaker at the German Society of Clinical Neurophysiology’s Annual Congress; Düsseldorf, Germany; Symposium: “Motor network alterations in genetic Parkinson – New results from neurophysiology and imaging studies”

2017: Invited speaker at the German Society of Clinical Neurophysiology’s Annual Congress; Leipzig, Germany; Richard Jung Kolleg: “Phenotypic spectrum of genetic dystonia”

2017: Invited speaker at the German Parkinson Congress, Baden-Baden, Germany; Symposium: “Dopa-responsive dystonia and myoclonus-dystonia – a video seminar”

2017: Invited speaker at the German Society of Neurology’s Annual Congress; Leipzig, Germany,; Minisymposium: “German network for translational research and treatment in dystonia (DysTract) – New insights of the pathophysiology of monogenetic dystonia”

2018: Invited speaker at the German Society of Clinical Neurophysiology’s Annual Congress; Berlin, Germany; Symposium: „Modulation of brain activity – Innovative tools to a better understanding of motor system network alterations and novel treatments“

2019: Invited speaker at the German Society of Neurology’s Annual Congress; Stuttgart, Germany; Symposium: „Dystonia as a network disease – Role of the cerebellum“

Medical Thesis and Habilitation

Weissbach A. Molecular genetic studies in movement disorders (University of Lübeck, 2010).

Weissbach A. Clinical and neurophysiological studies in monogenic dystonia and Parkinson syndromes (University of Lübeck, 2020)

Summary of publications

Original articles: 26

Review articles: 69

Book chapters: 2

  • Hamami F, Prasuhn J, Well LV, Lohmann K, Klein C, Brüggemann N, Bäumer T, Münchau A, Weissbach A. Functional movement disorders in dopa-responsive dystonia. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2025:107292.
  • Herzog R, Berger TM, Pauly MG, Xue H, Rueckert E, Münchau A, Bäumer T, Weissbach A. Cerebellar transcranial current stimulation – An intraindividual comparison of different techniques. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2022:987472.
  • Becker LF, Tunc S, Murphy P, Bäumer T, Weissbach A, Pauly MG, Al-Shorafat DM, Saranza G, Lang AE, Beste C, Donner TH, Verrel J, Münchau A. Time estimation and arousal responses in dopa-responsive dystonia. Scientific Reports 2022;1:14279.
  • Kilic-Berkmen G, Defazio G, Hallett M, Berardelli A, Ferrazzano G, Belvisi D, Klein C, Bäumer T, Weissbach A, Perlmutter JS, Feuerstein J, Jinnah HA, Dystonia Coalition Investigators. Diagnosis and classification of blepharospasm: Recommendations based on empirical evidence. J Neurol Sci 2022:120319.
  • Pauly MG, Barlage M, Hamami F, Steinhardt J, Baarbé J, Tran S, Hanssen H, Herzog R, Tadic V, Brüggemann N, Chen R, Münchau A, Bäumer T, Weissbach A. Subthalamic nucleus conditioning reduces premotor-motor interaction in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders 2022:6-12.
  • Weissbach A, Steinmeier A, Pauly M, Al-Shorafat DM, Saranza G, Lang A, Brüggemann N, Tadic V, Klein C, Münchau A, Bäumer T, Brown MJN. Longitudinal evaluations of somatosensory-motor inhibition in Dopa-responsive dystonia. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2022:40-46.
  • Weissbach A, Pauly MG, Herzog R, Hahn L, Halmans S, Hamami F, Bolte C, Camargos S, Jeon B, Kurian MA, Opladen T, Brüggemann N, Huppertz HJ, König IR, Klein C, Lohmann K. Relationship of Genotype, Phenotype, and Treatment in Dopa-Responsive Dystonia: MDSGene Review. Movement Disorders : official Journal of The Movement Disorder Society 2021;2:237-252.
  • Wittke C, Petkovic S, Dobricic V, Schaake S, MDS‐endorsed PSP Study Group, Respondek G, Weissbach A, Madoev H, Trinh J, Vollstedt EJ, Kuhnke N, Lohmann K, Dulovic Mahlow M, Marras C, König IR, Stamelou M, Bonifati V, Lill CM, Kasten M, Huppertz HJ, Höglinger G, Klein C. Genotype-Phenotype Relations for the Atypical Parkinsonism Genes: MDSGene Systematic Review. Movement Disorders : official Journal of The Movement Disorder Society 2021;7:1499-1510.
  • Weissbach A, Steinmeier A, Pauly MG, Al-Shorafat DM, Saranza G, Lang AE, Brüggemann N, Tadic V, Klein C, Lohmann K, Brown MJN, Beste C, Münchau A, Bäumer T. Multimodal Longitudinal Neurophysiological Investigations in Dopa-Responsive Dystonia. Mov Disord 2021;8:1986-1987.
  • Pauly MG, Steinmeier A, Bolte C, Hamami F, Tzvi E, Münchau A, Bäumer T, Weissbach A. Cerebellar rTMS and PAS effectively induce cerebellar plasticity. Scientific Reports 2021;1:3070.
  • Wittke C, Petkovic S, Dobricic V, Schaake S, MDS‐endorsed PSP Study Group, Respondek G, Weissbach A, Madoev H, Trinh J, Vollstedt EJ, Kuhnke N, Lohmann K, Dulovic Mahlow M, Marras C, König IR, Stamelou M, Bonifati V, Lill CM, Kasten M, Huppertz HJ, Höglinger G, Klein C. Genotype-Phenotype Relations for the Atypical Parkinsonism Genes: MDSGene Systematic Review. Mov Disord 2021;7:1499-1510.
  • Pauly MG, Ruiz López M, Westenberger A, Saranza G, Brüggemann N, Weissbach A, Rosales RL, Diesta CC, Jamora RDG, Reyes CJ, Madoev H, Petkovic S, Ozelius LJ, Klein C, Domingo A. Expanding Data Collection for the MDSGene Database: X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism as Use Case Example. Movement Disorders : official Journal of The Movement Disorder Society 2020;11:1933-1938.
  • Weissbach A, Wittke C, Kasten M, Klein C. ‘Atypical' Parkinson's disease – genetic. Int Rev Neurobiol 2019:207-235.
  • Brown MJN, Weissbach A, Pauly MG, Vesia M, Gunraj C, Baarbé J, Münchau A, Bäumer T, Chen R. Somatosensory-motor cortex interactions measured using dual-site transcranial magnetic stimulation. Brain Stimul 2019;5:1229-1243.
  • Brüggemann N, Domingo A, Rasche D, Moll CKE, Rosales RL, Jamora RDG, Hanssen H, Münchau A, Graf J, Weissbach A, Tadic V, Diesta CC, Volkmann J, Kühn A, Münte TF, Tronnier V, Klein C. Association of Pallidal Neurostimulation and Outcome Predictors With X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism. JAMA Neurol 2018;2:211-216.
  • Kuseyri O, Weissbach A, Bruggemann N, Klein C, Giżewska M, Karall D, Scholl-Bürgi S, Romanowska H, Krzywińska-Zdeb E, Monavari AA, Knerr I, Yapıcı Z, Leuzzi V, Opladen T. Pregnancy management and outcome in patients with four different tetrahydrobiopterin disorders. Journal of inherited Metabolic Disease 2018;5:849-863.
  • Hebert E, Borngräber F, Schmidt A, Rakovic A, Brænne I, Weissbach A, Hampf J, Vollstedt EJ, Größer L, Schaake S, Müller M, Manzoor H, Jabusch HC, Alvarez-Fischer D, Kasten M, Kostic VS, Gasser T, Zeuner KE, Kim HJ, Jeon B, Bauer P, Altenmüller E, Klein C, Lohmann K. Functional Characterization of Rare RAB12 Variants and Their Role in Musician's and Other Dystonias. Genes (Basel) 2017;10
  • Weissbach A, Werner E, Bally JF, Tunc S, Löns S, Timmann D, Zeuner KE, Tadic V, Brüggemann N, Lang A, Klein C, Münchau A, Bäumer T. Alcohol improves cerebellar learning deficit in myoclonus-dystonia: A clinical and electrophysiological investigation. Ann Neurol 2017;4:543-553.
  • Weissbach A, König IR, Hückelheim K, Pramstaller PP, Werner E, Brüggemann N, Tadic V, Lohmann K, Bäumer T, Münchau A, Kasten M, Klein C. Influence of L-dopa on subtle motor signs in heterozygous Parkin- and PINK1 mutation carriers. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2017:95-99.
  • Grütz K, Seibler P, Weissbach A, Lohmann K, Carlisle FA, Blake DJ, Westenberger A, Klein C, Grünewald A. Faithful SGCE imprinting in iPSC-derived cortical neurons: an endogenous cellular model of myoclonus-dystonia. Sci Rep 2017:41156.
  • Westenberger A, Max C, Brüggemann N, Domingo A, Grütz K, Pawlack H, Weissbach A, Kühn AA, Spiegler J, Lang AE, Sperner J, Fung VSC, Schallner J, Gillessen-Kaesbach G, Münchau A, Klein C. Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood as a New Presentation of Adenylate Cyclase 5-Mutation-Associated Disease: A Report of Two Cases. J Pediatr 2016:306-308.e1.
  • Weissbach A, Bäumer T, Pramstaller PP, Brüggemann N, Tadic V, Chen R, Klein C, Münchau A. Abnormal premotor-motor interaction in heterozygous Parkin- and Pink1 mutation carriers. Clin Neurophysiol 2016;1:275-280.
  • Koschmidder E, Weissbach A, Brüggemann N, Kasten M, Klein C, Lohmann K. A nonsense mutation in CHCHD2 in a patient with Parkinson disease. Neurology 2016;6:577-579.
  • Weissbach A, Bäumer T, Brüggemann N, Tadic V, Zittel S, Cheng B, Thomalla G, Klein C, Münchau A. Premotor-motor excitability is altered in dopa-responsive dystonia. Mov Disord 2015;12:1705-1709.
  • Mencacci NE, R'bibo L, Bandres-Ciga S, Carecchio M, Zorzi G, Nardocci N, Garavaglia B, Batla A, Bhatia KP, Pittman AM, Hardy J, Weissbach A, Klein C, Gasser T, Lohmann E, Wood NW. The CACNA1B R1389H variant is not associated with myoclonus-dystonia in a large European multicentric cohort. Hum Mol Genet 2015;18:5326-5329.
  • Mencacci NE, Rubio-Agusti I, Zdebik A, Asmus F, Ludtmann MH, Ryten M, Plagnol V, Hauser AK, Bandres-Ciga S, Bettencourt C, Forabosco P, Hughes D, Soutar MM, Peall K, Morris HR, Trabzuni D, Tekman M, Stanescu HC, Kleta R, Carecchio M, Zorzi G, Nardocci N, Garavaglia B, Lohmann E, Weissbach A, Klein C, Hardy J, Pittman AM, Foltynie T, Abramov AY, Gasser T, Bhatia KP, Wood NW. A missense mutation in KCTD17 causes autosomal dominant myoclonus-dystonia. Am J Hum Genet 2015;6:938-947.
  • Weissbach A, Bäumer T, Rosales R, Lee LV, Brüggemann N, Domingo A, Westenberger A, Jamora RD, Diesta CC, Brandt V, Tadic V, Zittel S, Klein C, Münchau A. Neurophysiological fingerprints of X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism: A model basal ganglia disease. Mov Disord 2015;6:873-875.
  • Nibbeling E, Schaake S, Tijssen MA, Weissbach A, Groen JL, Altenmüller E, Verbeek DS, Lohmann K. Accumulation of rare variants in the arylsulfatase G (ARSG) gene in task-specific dystonia. J Neurol 2015;5:1340-1343.
  • Theuns J, Verstraeten A, Sleegers K, Wauters E, Gijselinck I, Smolders S, Crosiers D, Corsmit E, Elinck E, Sharma M, Krüger R, Lesage S, Brice A, Chung SJ, Kim MJ, Kim YJ, Ross OA, Wszolek ZK, Rogaeva E, Xi Z, Lang AE, Klein C, Weissbach A, Mellick GD, Silburn PA, Hadjigeorgiou GM, Dardiotis E, Hattori N, Ogaki K, Tan EK, Zhao Y, Aasly J, Valente EM, Petrucci S, Annesi G, Quattrone A, Ferrarese C, Brighina L, Deutschländer A, Puschmann A, Nilsson C, Garraux G, LeDoux MS, Pfeiffer RF, Boczarska-Jedynak M, Opala G, Maraganore DM, Engelborghs S, De Deyn PP, Cras P, Cruts M, Van Broeckhoven C, GEO-PD Consortium. Global investigation and meta-analysis of the C9orf72 (G4C2)n repeat in Parkinson disease. Neurology 2014;21:1906-1913.
  • Weissbach A, Klein C. Hereditary dystonia and parkinsonism: two sides of the same coin? Brain 2014;Pt 9:2402-2404.
  • Weissbach A, Kasten M, Grünewald A, Brüggemann N, Trillenberg P, Klein C, Hagenah J. Prominent psychiatric comorbidity in the dominantly inherited movement disorder myoclonus-dystonia. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2013;4:422-425.
  • Weissbach A, Siegesmund K, Brüggemann N, Schmidt A, Kasten M, Pichler I, Muhle H, Lohmann E, Lohnau T, Schwinger E, Hagenah J, Stephani U, Pramstaller PP, Klein C, Lohmann K. Exome sequencing in a family with restless legs syndrome. Mov Disord 2012;13:1686-1689.
  • Kumar KR, Weissbach A, Heldmann M, Kasten M, Tunc S, Sue CM, Svetel M, Kostić VS, Segura-Aguilar J, Ramirez A, Simon DK, Vieregge P, Münte TF, Hagenah J, Klein C, Lohmann K. Frequency of the D620N mutation in VPS35 in Parkinson disease. Arch Neurol 2012;10:1360-1364.
  • Weissbach A, Djarmati A, Klein C, Dragasević N, Zühlke C, Raković A, Guzvić M, Butz E, Tönnies H, Siebert R, Petrović I, Svetel M, Kostić VS, Lohmann K. Possible genetic heterogeneity of spinocerebellar ataxia linked to chromosome 15. Mov Disord 2010;11:1577-1582.