National cooperating partner institutions

Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU)

The focus of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU) in research and teaching lies in engineering, the natural sciences, economics, business, and medicine. In addition, humanities subjects provide the university, which was founded in 1993, with an essential complement for meeting the challenges of the modern knowledge society. Over 13,800 students, of which over 2,000 come from international backgrounds, are enrolled in nine faculties offering more than 80 different courses. This dynamic, cosmopolitan university offers state-of-the-art facilities, excellent supervision for students and a practical, hands-on education. Dynamic systems and neurosciences are key areas of research and are effectively reinforced by nearby external research institutes. uni-magdeburg.de

The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)

The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), with its nine German sites, is a member of the Helmholtz Association and the only research centre in Germany dedicated to dementia and all its facets. The DZNE site in Magdeburg is housed in a new building of 4000 m2. Its human neuroimaging infrastructure includes a new 3T MR facility, a human MR-PET facility, mobile electroencephalography, near-infrared spectroscopy, and access to magnetoencephalography. The site also has access to a 7Tesla human scanner provided by the Leibniz-Institute of Neurobiology. One of the overarching goals of the DZNE site in Magdeburg is to investigate microvascular disease as an underlying cause of age-related loss of cognitive functions and dementia and to develop cognitive and physical interventions for stabilizing, reorganizing, or regaining cognitive functions. Relatedly, the Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) is dedicated to neuroscientific studies of mechanisms underlying learning and memory including pathological microvascular disturbances. The methodological mission is to bridge the gaps between molecular, cellular, and systems neurosciences in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of these neural processes, with a special focus on cutting-edge imaging technologies. dzne.de

German Primate Centre (DPZ)

The DPZ (German Primate Centre) in Göttingen is a non-profit institute funded by the Federal Republic of Germany and its federal states. The DPZ’s mission is to serve as a centre of excellence for research with primates and as a service and competence centre for institutions in Germany and abroad that house primates and/or do primate-related research. The functions and services of the DPZ concentrate on biological and biomedical research with primates. Primate husbandry is the central infrastructural unit, with breeding colonies for Old and New World monkeys (1,300 animals). Another key infrastructure i is an imaging centre with two scanners, one for small and one for large animals. The Fraunhofer ITEM already cooperates closely with the DPZ through a study group on translational preclinical development. dpz.eu

Helmholtz Research Center for Environmental Health in Munich (HMGU)

There are several successful research connections between REBIRTH and the Helmholtz Research Center for Environmental Health in Munich (HMGU), a leading centre in health research (staff 2,300) with a focus on environmental health, aiming to preserve and improve individual health by developing innovative strategies for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. In particular, there are close collaborations with HMGU’s newly-founded Institute of Medicinal Chemistry, located at the Leibniz Universität Hannover in the Department of Organic Chemistry and the Centre of Biomolecular Drug Research (BMWZ). HMGU’s participation in REBIRTH provides significant contributions to drug discovery, especially by state-of-the-art hit and lead optimization, probe design, molecular imaging, and stem cell biology. Furthermore, this partnership also grants access to associated technology platforms like high content screening, fragment-based drug discovery, systems biology, and the German Mouse Clinic. iPSC-based high-throughput screens of chemical libraries will be conducted either at the screening unit of the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) in Berlin or in collaboration with the Lead Discovery Centre in Dortmund, established by ‘Max Planck Innovation’. helmholtz-muenchen.de