The Hannover Medical School (MHH) is the only independent medical university in Germany and is the central REBIRTH institution. It was founded in 1965 and is an academic and clinical organization that holds a prestigious position among the country’s elite in the fields of medicine and the natural sciences. In recent years – not least owing to Lower Saxony’s initiative to enhance higher education – special support and funding have been received in three priority areas:

• Immunological sciences and infection research;
• Organ and stem cell transplantation; and
• Biomedical engineering.

This targeted support of selected priority fields has enabled MHH to become one of the front-runners in the top flight of institutions providing medical higher education. This hospital, a multi-speciality tertiary care facility with 18 medical centres, annually treats around 50,000 patients on an inpatient basis and some 150,000 outpatients. The School is among the world’s leading centres for transplantation medicine. It heads the nationwide statistics on numbers of organ transplants per annum (more than 490) and is among the global leaders in lung transplants. Around 140 bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants are also performed here every year.

MHH’s interdisciplinary research and training programmes also receive a large number of individual grants, including funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Union. In terms of average funds received per professor, the MHH is among the very top medical teaching institutions in Germany.

Following MHH departments contribute to REBIRTH:

• Biochemistry
• Biophysical Chemistry
• Cardiology & Angiology
• Cellular Chemistry
• Central Animal Facility
• Clinical Biochemistry
• Clinical Immunology
• Experimental Haematology Functional & Applied Anatomy
• Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Endocrinology
• Haematology & Oncology
• Immunology
• Molecular Biology
• Molecular Pathology
• Nephrology
• Neuroanatomy
• Orthopaedics
• Otholaryngology
• Pathology Paediatric Haematology & Oncology
• Plastic-, Hand- & Reconstructive Surgery Pneumology
• Thoracic- & Cardiovascular Surgery
• Transfusion Medicine
• Traumatic Surgery
• Virology

The University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo) is run under the auspices of a public foundation. Founded in 1778, today it is the oldest independent college of veterinary medicine in Germany and numbers among the most renowned veterinary educational institutions worldwide. The TiHo has close ties with both the LUH and MHH. The participating departments combine clinical diagnostics and therapeutic procedures with innovative research in biomedicine and biomedical engineering. In this connection, various interdisciplinary collaborative ventures between clinical research and technically oriented fields have emerged. The TiHo has unique expertise in diagnostic and therapy models, which are of great importance as models for diseases and disorders in humans. The Small Animal Clinic, for example, is able to integrate both in vivo and in vitro approaches, utilizing its know-how in different molecular methods, cell cultures and investigative techniques (relating to animal breeding and surgical procedures), the use of special equipment (such as μ-CT scanners and fluorescence microscopes) and multiple clinical studies.

With a student body numbering around 21,000, the Leibniz University of Hannover (LUH) is the second-largest highereducation institution in Lower Saxony. Students have around 75 different degree subjects to choose from. The university’s history goes back to 1831, when it was founded as a higher vocational school. Today, the LUH is widely known on the strength of its many years of experience in both the natural and material sciences. The highly innovative Laser Centre (LZH), an affiliated institute, is internationally known for its achievements in the field of photonics and the related discipline of nanotechnology.

The participating faculties of the LUH have forged interdisciplinary research links with MHH, as shown by their receiving joint funding from the DFG and the BMBF. The various research groups are instrumental in the commercialization of research findings in close collaboration with national and international industrial partners.

More than 150 scientists from over 15 countries are engaged in research at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine (MPI). The institute, founded in 2001, comprises three departments:

• Vascular cell biology;
• Cell and developmental biology; and
• Tissue biology and morphogenesis.

One of the MPI’s chief research focuses is on the molecular biology of pluripotent stem cells and germline development. This involves strategies for reprogramming somatic cells into a pluripotent state by means of somatic cell nucleus transfer or other techniques such as cell fusion. One of the main aims is to discover factors and complexes that modify chromatin and histones during the reprogramming process. A further area of expertise consists in the differentiation of germ cells from pluripotent cells, as with the in vitro production of oocytes (egg cells) from ES cells. Many national and international collaborations have been firmly established, including those with the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics Mariensee and MHH.

The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Germany’s Federal Research Institute of Animal Health (FLI), is an independent higher federal authority run under the aegis of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). Work here centres around promoting and monitoring the health of farm animals and protecting people from infections that can be transmitted from animals to humans. The FLI is divided into seven organizational units housing eleven sub-institutes. The Mariensee site is home to the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics.

Prominent research projects at the FLI laboratories relate to the biomedical production and the characterization of transgenic cattle and pigs, to studies on cell reprogramming by somatic cell nucleus transfer on the basis of cloning, and to stem cell culture. The Institute of Farm Animal Genetics has enjoyed long and successful cooperation with MHH (in the form of a collaborative research centre). The Institute has unique expertise relating to large-animal models and tissue regeneration. These aspects are of great importance for the development of innovative approaches to cell therapy and tissue engineering, and their comparative evaluation.

The Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM) is an institution of the Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research (FhG). The spectrum of research and development activities includes preclinical/clinical pharmacological research and development, allergy and asthma research, and investigations into tissue and environmental toxicology and consumer protection, as well as the testing and registration of chemicals, biocides and pesticides. As a member of the Fraunhofer Society with its focus on translational research, ITEM generates more than 50 % of its budget from industrial contacts. ITEM’s priority area of interest is diseases and disorders of the respiratory tract, and it has established a unique platform for molecular toxicology (with approved laboratories). This includes animal experiments using high-performance imaging techniques, a cell processing laboratory that works to good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, and a clinical unit that is able to apply GMP in pulmonology. The ITEM has also collaborated successfully with the MHH, the LUH and the HZI for many years.

The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) is a non university research institution with more than 600 staff. An important player in the Helmholtz Association, the HZI has placed its scientific focus on infection research. The main theme around which the participating researchers’ work revolves is the complex interplay between infection pathogens and the immune system. There are numerous successful research ties with MHH, especially with all of its present collaborative research centres (SFBs). The HZI’s involvement is quite crucial for the fields of immunology and cell biology and for associated technology platforms such as genomics, proteomics, mouse genetics, development of good manufacturing practice (GMP) and the production of proteins, cell and gene therapy products, and in vivo imaging. The HZI and the MHH receive joint funding from the DFG, the BMBF, the EU, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.