A successful Collaborative Research Center (CRC) can start its third funding period, a new one is added / A total of eight CRCs are located at the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine / New CRC on heart research: deciphering molecular circuits of heart disease for tailored therapies / CRC on infection research extended: how viruses and parasites spread and how the body fights them
The German Research Foundation (DFG) will be supporting two Collaborative Research Centers (CRC) at the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine (MFHD) with a total of around l26.9 million euros over the next four years: The DFG granted a third funding period to the already existing and successful CRC on infection research. A new addition is a CRC on heart research. “As dean, I warmly congratulate all the researchers involved and thank them for their outstanding commitment. The DFG’s decision recognizes their excellent scientific work and advanced concepts. As the spokesperson of CRC 1129 on infection research, I am very pleased about the approval of a third funding period in which we can continue to pursue our projects. Equally important is the approval of a new CRC on heart disease, a designated focus of the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine and the Heidelberg University Hospital,” says Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Dean of the MFHD. A total of eight CRCs are currently based here, and Heidelberg researchers are involved in a further eleven CRCs.
The new CRC 1550 “Molecular Circuits of Heart Disease” aims to lay the foundations for novel tailored therapies for congenital and acquired heart diseases. To this end, a wide range of data is being collected on the influence of the environment on genes and their products, on metabolism, and on the clinical pictures of affected individuals, in order to uncover the neuralgic switches in the molecular development of disease by means of computer-assisted network analyses, as well as to confirm them experimentally, and finally to use them for the development of new therapies. The spokesperson is Professor Dr. Johannes Backs, Director of the Institute of Experimental Cardiology at Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD). Deputy spokesperson is Professor Dr. Norbert Frey, Director of the Clinic for Cardiology, Angiology and Pneumology at the UKHD. The CRC is funded with approximately 14 million euros in the first funding period. The project teams include the MFHD, the Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).
In CRC 1129 “Integrative analysis of Pathogen Replication and Spread”, the scientists focus on the interactions between pathogens and host. The spokesperson of the CRC, which is now funded with 12.9 million euros (previously 10.8 million euros and 13.1 million euros), is Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Director of Department of Infectious Diseases at UKHD. In addition to researchers from the center, scientists from four other faculties of Heidelberg University as well as from EMBL, DKFZ and several Max Planck Institutes are involved.
Goal: Tailor-made therapy for heart diseases
Heart disease is the most common cause of death worldwide – and the number of people affected continues to rise. Despite significant therapeutic advances, drug therapies for heart failure due to various causes of heart disease are increasingly reaching their limits. “To advance therapies for heart disease, we urgently need targeted and tailored treatment approaches that stop the disease from developing,” says Prof. Johannes Backs, MD. “Recent advances in disease models and so-called multi-OMICs techniques – the joint analysis of, for example, changes in the genetic makeup, protein makeup and metabolic activity in heart tissue – are giving us insights into the complex causes of heart disease as an interplay of genetic variations, environmental influences and lifestyle. In our new CRC, we will link data from experimental model systems and patient data with mathematical methods, among other things, to decipher the molecular circuits activated by various causes. In doing so, we will lay a foundation for tailored therapeutic approaches and preventive strategies.”
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