Another success in health research for Berlin

By establishing a new site for the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the scientists from Berlin have once again been suc-cessful in a nationwide competition with their research concept. 

The Senator for Education, Science and Research, Jürgen Zöllner, referred to neurobiology as one of the most exciting and most significant fields of research of the next few decades. The decision in favour of the Charité underlines their ambition to count among the most important health research centres.

The DZNE is a research centre within the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. The interdisciplinary network focuses on investigating the causes of as well as prevention and treatment approaches for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkin-son’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other cerebral diseases.

By establishing a new site for the DZNE, the Charité has been awarded another contract with the German Centres of Health Research initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Re-search (BMBF). By concentrating the expertise of the best scientists throughout Germany, a substantial contribution to improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of significant en-demic diseases is supposed to be provided within these centres. The Berlin concept has con-vinced the international expert team above all through its translational approach, i.e. the close connection of basic research and clinical application.

Most recently, the Charité has been able to achieve good results with new sites for the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) as well as the German Centre for Car-diovascular Research (DZHK).

90% of the new DZNE site is funded by the BMBF, whereas ten percent is borne by the State of Berlin. The annual funding will be provided to the research institutes in the long term and will thus further contribute to the successful expansion of Berlin as a neuroscientific location.

Beside the Charité are mainly the Max-Delbrück Centre (MDC), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) partner organisations of the new DZNE site.

Contact
Prof. Dietmar Schmitz
Neuroscience Research Center
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
T +49 30 450 539 054