Funding for excellent junior clinical neuroscientists at the Charité

27.11.2019

The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of six locations selected by the Hertie Foundation for the newly established Hertie Network of Excellence in Clinical Neuroscience. The strategic network and career development program for clinical neurosciences will initially receive a total of five million euros in funding for three years. Of this amount, 660,000 euros will go to four young researchers at the Charité.

The non-profit Hertie Foundation has initiated the Hertie Network of Excellence in Clinical Neuroscience in order to accelerate the process from laboratory to clinical routine and to promote it for the benefit of patients. The consortium consists of six sites that form a strategic partnership. In addition to the Charité as a location in Berlin, the locations in Bonn, Hamburg, Heidelberg/Mannheim, Munich and Tübingen have won the selection process.

"The clinical neurosciences at the Charité are characterised by a close partnership between the Department of Neurology, the Department of Experimental Neurology and the Neurosciences Research Centre. This translational expertise and infrastructure, whose success is reflected, for example, in the NeuroCure excellence cluster, is brought into the network by the Berlin location," explains Prof. Dr. Matthias Endres, spokesperson for the Berlin location and director of the Clinic for Neurology and Experimental Neurology at the Charité. "The Hertie Network will also give us the opportunity to apply an even greater variety of methods and to establish larger patient cohorts and multicentre studies more quickly," adds Prof. Dr. Sarah Shoichet, deputy spokesperson of the network in Berlin and professor at the Charité Neuroscience Research Centre.

Most of the five million euros provided by the Hertie Foundation go to the Hertie Academy of Clinical Neuroscience. The career development programme is intended to provide excellent young researchers with key qualifications for the next steps in their careers and to promote scientific networking, for example through joint projects. Four excellent young scientists from each location will take part. The Charité promotes the following talents: Dr. Sarah-Christin Staroßom from the Institute for Medical Immunology of the Charité and the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) of the Charité and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Dr. Susanne Wegmann from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases - Berlin as well as Dr. Wolf-Julian Neumann and Dr. Nikolaus Wenger from the Clinic for Neurology with Experimental Neurology at the Charité Mitte campus. Their projects will focus on stroke research and cerebrovascular diseases, neuroinflammatory diseases, dementia and synaptic pathology, as well as movement disorders. In addition to funding of over 600,000 euros from the Hertie Foundation, the Charité is contributing 330,000 euros of its own funds.

Hertie Network of Excellence in Clinical Neuroscience

This summer, 15 university locations throughout Germany applied for the Hertie Network. An international jury chaired by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Otmar D. Wiestler, President of the Helmholtz Association, has selected the six most convincing locations. The most important criteria for the selection of the locations were outstanding achievements in research and health care as well as the promotion programs for young scientists. The network is based on the Hertie Academy of Clinical Neuroscience career development program.

Contact:
Matthias Endres
Director of the Clinic for Neurology and Experimental Neurology
Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Email: presse(at)charite.de

Source: Press Release Charité

Links:

Charité Neuroscience Research Centre

German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Clinic for Neurology with Experimental Neurology

Hertie Network of Excellence in Clinical Neuroscience

Hertie Foundation

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