Biotop-report 2012

25

BioTOPics 44 | May 2012 

 Life Sciences 

BioTOP-Report 

niz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP). Both institutes 

are celebrating their 20th anniversaries this year and enjoy an 

outstanding reputation worldwide. Chemists, biologist, bioinfor-

maticians, pharmacologists, pharmacists, physicists and doctors 

work together from around the world. It is clear that the German 

Capital Region is becoming ever more attractive to scientists due 

to its excellent research and living conditions. 

Pooling fundamental and patient-oriented research 

The significance to biomedical research in the German Capital Re-

gion is further enhanced by the close cooperation between the 

Charité and the MDC. There are also plans to further extend the 

pooled complementary fundamental and patient-oriented clinical 

research on an institutional level by creating a joint research as-

sociation, thereby consolidating the leading international position 

of Berlin-Brandenburg as a life science location in the long term.

JULY 2011

Berlin achieves yet another success for health research: the Charité is select-

ed as the new site of the German Research Institute for Neurodegenerative 

Diseases (DZNE) 

++++ 

Research at the MDC in the field of pharmaceuticals 

research will from now on be networked closely with five other centers of the 

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers and three other partners, 

including the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) in Berlin-

Buch

AUGUST 2011

The Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) of the MDC is now 

the first academic research facility on the European continent to receive an 

innovative sequencing system using SMRT technology which can read indi-

vidual DNA molecules in real-time 

++++ 

Charité has established the new 

molecular diagnostic test ”EndoPredict Assay” for breast cancer patients 

which helps doctors in deciding which personalised therapy to choose for 

individual patients

SEPTEMBER 2011

Prof. Dr. Thomas Willnow at the MDC is awarded the Franz-Volhard Prize on 

September 10, 2011 at the opening ceremony of the annual conference of 

the German Society of Nephrology in Berlin 

++++ 

Researchers at the MDC in 

Berlin-Buch establish the first mathematical model for determination of the 

contribution of genetic risk factors to the development of Alzheimer’s 

++++ 

The Charité opens the new building for its Translation Research Institutes: the 

facility’s central unit is the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Thera-

pies (BCRT)

OCTOBER 2011

The scientist Dr. Jan Laufer receives 1.6 million Euros from the European 

Research Council (ERC) to establish a researcher group for the investigation of 

stem cells in tissue regeneration by means of photoacoustic imaging

NOVEMBER 2011

In the context of the internally funded project „Fraunhofer ivD-Plattform“ a 

credit-card sized system was developed jointly by seven Fraunhofer Insti-

tutes during the past five years which now permits the analysis of up to 500 

parameters in a single drop of blood 

++++ 

Four researchers at the MDC will 

receive a total of eight million Euros in research funding from the European 

Research Council (ERC) in Strasbourg. The two neurobiologists Prof. Dr. Gary 

Lewin (MDC) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Jentsch (MDC/FMP) will each receive an 

ERC Advanced Grant worth 2.5 million Euros

Prof. Dr. Walter Rosenthal

Science Director of the Max Delbrück Center  

for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch

The new structure will be most beneficial for both the MDC 

and the Charité since excellent basic research and excellent 

clinical research will further strengthen and complement each 

other for the benefit of patients. And it goes without saying 

that excellence is the key to success.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mlynek

President of the Helmholtz Association

The planned strategic partnership between the MDC and the 

Charité will give biomedical research in Berlin an even higher 

international profile.

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26

BioTOPics 44 | May 2012 

BioTOP-Report

 Life Sciences 

Outstanding research to meet the medical and 

bioeconomic challenges of the future 

There are also many excellent research facilities in the state of 

Brandenburg – including the University of Potsdam, the Helm-

holtz-Zentrum Geesthacht in Teltow, the Fraunhofer Institute 

for Applied Polymer Research, the Fraunhofer Institute for Bio-

medical Engineering, the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and 

Interfaces, the German Institute for Human Nutrition and the 

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology. In addition 

to red biotechnology, scientists also work on central aspects of 

green and white biotechnology, which are decisive for meeting 

the bioeconomical challenges of the future. Modern biotechnol-

ogy and life sciences create ever greater data volumes that can-

not be managed without modern software solutions. So it is an 

advantage that two important software institutes, namely the 

Hasso-Plattner-Institut and the future SAP Innovation Center in 

Potsdam, are based locally and directly focus on the requirements 

of scientists and users in the region, developing innovative soft-

ware technologies in close collaboration with them. 

The following pages present selected life sciences themes and 

projects in Berlin-Brandenburg and innovative developments 

achieved in the recent past. 

DECEMBER 2011

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Rajewsky at the MDC receives the Gottfried Wilhelm Leib-

niz Prize, Germany’s most highly endowed science award 

++++ 

The scientist 

Dr. Alexander Kühn at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics is this 

year’s winner of the essay competition “Gesundheit 2050”

JANUARY 2012 

Researchers at the MDC map the mechanism by which immunocyte cells 

destroy cancer cells 

++++ 

Opening of the new Helmholtz Virtual Institute 

“Multifunctional Biomaterials for Medicine” 

++++ 

Artemisinin, the most 

effective anti-malaria agent, can now be manufactured cheaply and in high 

volumes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces 

in Potsdam and from Freie Universität Berlin have developed a very simple 

artemisinin synthesis

FEBRUARY 2012

Scientists at the Charité are the first to have mapped which specific disorders 

of nerve cells are involved in the development of focal therapy-resistant epi-

lepsies 

++++ 

Prof. Dr. Erich Wanker at the MDC in Berlin-Buch will receive 1.35 

million Euros over the next two years to search for active agents for the treat-

ment of diseases caused by protein misfolding such as Alzheimer’s and Parkin-

son’s 

++++ 

The Charité launches the new EU research project RESPONSIFY for 

improved adjustment of breast cancer therapy to each individual patient so as 

to avoid unsuccessful treatment

MARCH 2012

TU Berlin, the Science and Technology Park Berlin Adlershof and Campus Ber-

lin-Buch launch a cooperation project with the Russian Skolkowo Foundation 

++++ 

Scientists at the Charité and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) 

developed a realistic model for cellular signal processes to permit systems 

biology analysis of the function of cardiac muscle cells and for modelling spe-

cific data from tumour tissues of lung cancer patients

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