Life and Health

Good health is unquestionably a valuable asset. We wish it for others and for ourselves. However, staying healthy forever is not possible. Complex systems interact with each other and influence one another. Researchers in the key profile area Life & Health want to explore these systems and their interactions, from a simple cell to complex ecosystems. The aim is to develop strategies and therapies that strengthen health and fight diseases.

Researchers in Bonn focus on two systems: the nervous and the immune system. How do they work and why do they fail? How and why do they interact with other systems and the environment? In order to answer these questions, scientists from the areas of medicine, biology, computer sciences, pharmacy, and chemistry all work together translaterally. On the journey from laboratory to hospital bed, respective subject areas incorporate their findings in close collaboration. The next generation of researchers also benefit from this interdisciplinary research by gaining insight into other subject areas relevant for their fields.

Up to now, success in the key profile area Life & Health has been considerable. The Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation, established since 2012, and the many spin-offs testify its quality. For example, Rigontec, who aim to consolidate knowledge about the immune system and use it for cancer therapy or LIFE & BRAIN GmbH, who work in close collaboration with industry and commerce to ensure that innovative research results are developed early on into marketable products and services.

But that is not all. This key profile area also strives to pass knowledge on to the general public. Researchers cooperate on events with the Deutsches Museum and the Museum Alexander König in Bonn and school students are able to do internships in order to excite young people about research in this field. Special events such as setting up walk-in organs on Bonn’s Münsterplatz during the Day of Immunoliogy also allow scientists to interact with the public. After all health is a subject relevant to everyone.

Leibniz Prize for Eike Latz and Veit Hornung

Research Projects

EXC 1023 - ImmunoSensation: The Immune Sensory System

SFB/TR 57 - Organ Fibrosis: From Mechanisms of Injury to Modulation of Disease

SFB/TR 83 - Molecular Architecture and Cellular Functions of Lipid/Protein Assemblies

SFB 1089 - Synaptic Micronetworks in Health and Disease

GRK 1873 - Pharmacology of 7TM-Receptors and Downstream Signalling Pathways

GRK 2168 - Myeloid antigen presenting cells and the induction of adaptive immunity

FOR 2372 - G Protein Signalling Cascades: with new modular probes and modulators towards novel pharmacological concepts

FOR 2743 - Mechanical Stress Protection

BMBF: Neuroallianz

BMBF: German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)

BMBF: IntegraMent - Integrated Understanding of Causes and Mechanisms in Mental Disorders

BMBF: Diet-Body-Brain - From Epidemiology to Evidence-based Communication (Kompetenzcluster Ernährungsforschung)

BMBF: HyReKA: Kontrolle Antibiotika-resistenter Krankheitserreger

BMBF: TAKeOFF - Netzwerk zur Überwindung der Schwierigkeiten bei der Bekämpfung von Filariose

EU: ENERI - European Network of Research Ethics and Research Integrity

Akademieprojekt: Grundlagen, Normen und Kriterien der ethischen Urteilsfindung in dem Biowissenschaften-Referenzzentrum

Awards

5 Leibniz Prizes:

Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz (2018), Prof. Dr. Frank Bradtke (2016, on leave at DZNE), Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann (2012), Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts (2012), Prof. Dr. Michael Famulok (2002)

2 ERC Starting Grants:

Dr. Bernardo Franklin, Dr. Katrin Paeschke

2 ERC Consolidator Grants:

Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz, Prof. Dr. Günter Mayer