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| NO 9/2020 | NovemBEr Issue |
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Dear Readers,
It was Schiller's birthday on 10 November. On this occasion, the literary archive in Schiller´s hometown of Marbach am Neckar annually invites a “prominent figure in public life” to give the “Schiller speech”. This year, they invited BIH Professor Christian Drosten – and he accepted! It was a good fit, because the virologist has something in common with the poet: Both studied medicine without becoming a doctor, both are driven by curiosity, striving for freedom and aware of the responsibility of their actions. And so Christian Drosten closes his thoroughly interesting and entertaining speech with the justified assumption: Schiller would wear a mask! Listen in here (only in German)! And when you have finished listening to or reading the speech, we wish you good entertainment with the latest edition of the BIH Newsletter. Best wishes,Your BIH Newsletter Team
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On 1 November 2020, Professor Georg Duda took up the tenured W3 Professorship for Engineering Regenerative Therapies at the BIH and at Charité. The expert in biomechanics and regenerative medicine is particularly interested in the special ability of tissues such as bone and muscle to adapt to mechanical-physical stimuli through formation and degradation. The deputy spokesperson of the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) will continue to develop and expand the BIH and Charité’s joint focus area “Regenerative Therapies”, with a particular focus on advanced therapies. Read the press release |
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Heart attacks occur suddenly and have various triggers. Researchers at Charité, the BIH and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) have now been able to uncover another cause of heart attacks. Some of the vascular deposits examined in patients contain activated immune cells that accumulate on the inner wall of the blood vessels under altered flow conditions and damage the cells lining the vessels. The scientists have now described their results in the European Heart Journal. Read the press release
Read about the publication |
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In September and October 2020, the Steering Committees of the four BIH Translation Hubs have elected their respective new speakers. As previously, they will represent the Hub Communities and their Steering Committees in the BIH Scientific Committee. We congratulate all new speakers: Clinical Translation: PD Dr. Uta Höpken, Prof. Dr. Andreas Meisel Digital Medicine: Prof. Felix Balzer, Prof. Petra Ritter, Prof. Sylvia Thun Multi-Omics: Prof. Nils Blüthgen, Prof. Angelika Eggert Organoids and Cell Engineering: Dr. Mina Gouti, Dr. Harald Stachelscheid More about the BIH Translation Hubs |
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News From the BIH Academy
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News From the BIH QUEST Center
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From 28 September – 1 October, the BIH QUEST Center conducted the third iteration of their annual Oxford | Berlin Summer School on Open Research, this year online. This was done in collaboration with the Berlin University Alliance and University of Oxford. The program thus featured lecturers from all Berlin universities and from the University of Oxford. Fifty participants from Berlin, Europe, and some even beyond followed the program on best practice and new developments towards transparent and reproducible research. To the talks |
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News From BIH Innovations
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This year's cohort of the BIH Digital Health Accelerator (DHA) program started in early October with ten new teams. There are projects for digital pathology, models for the metabolism of organs, an APP for patients with psychological problems, AI-based diagnostic solutions for intensive care units or a computer-assisted tool for cancer patients to coordinate the administration of medication with the internal clock. A telemedical solution is to optimize the therapy of severe muscle weakness, a participation platform is to track heart patients over the long term, disease-causing DNA sequence variants are to be discovered and personalized therapies for heart valve patients are to be developed. The aim of the program is to support translation projects in the concept design, product development, clinical validation and transfer of digital health innovations into medical applications, e.g. through licensing or company foundation. The BIH wishes the teams every success with their translation projects. Read more about the funded projects |
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On 7 – 8 September 2020 teams from Charité and the MDC presented their translational projects in front of a jury with experts from diverse fields including science, industry, business and medicine. Nine Teams convinced the jury and were selected to take part in the SPARK-BIH Validation Funding Program where they will receive tailored education, mentoring, advice and networking as well as milestone-based funding over a period of up to two years. The funded teams cover a diverse range of cutting-edge projects from different medical areas and include cell therapies, vaccine discovery, diagnostic and medtech projects. Read more |
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Several teams have applied to the first NeuroCure / SPARK-BIH Call for translational proposals. At the evaluation session in September 2020, teams from the field of Neuroscience presented their projects in short pitches in front of an expert jury. Based on the expert’s recommendations, the NeuroCure board approved the funding of for teams (two Pharma projects, one MedTech project and one Diagnostic project) that have now entered the SPARK-BIH mentoring program. Read more |
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In May 2020 Laura Schaupp received the Paper of the Month award. The immunologist in the department of BIH Professor Andreas Diefenbach was able to show how the microbiome influences the immune system. She compared sterile mice without any microbiome with normal mice and found that the immune system is significantly less efficient when the bacteria in the intestine are missing. Read the press release
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Due to the current situation regarding Sars-CoV-2/COVID-19 almost all BIH events will be implemented by using online tools, as noted in the event calender. If you would like to receive a regular overview of upcoming BIH Events, please register here. Many thanks. |
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At the fifth edition of the Future Medicine Science Match 2020, organized by the BIH and the Tagesspiegel, almost 1,000 participants met on 7 November – this year online – to learn about the best projects involving artificial intelligence (AI) in translational medicine. The award for best scientific pitch went to app@work, a project that uses automated data analysis with integrated AI to predict the course of disease and help identify targeted treatment options for COVID-19 patients in intensive care units. The audience award for the most entertaining pitch, which is funded by Intuitive Surgical, was won by Manouchehr Shamsrizi from gamelab.berlin – part of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s Cluster of Excellence. Read the press releaseVideo recording of the event |
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On 10 November, the last day of this year's Berlin Science Week, about 35 participants met virtually for the BIH Diversithon to jointly edit and write Wikipedia articles about women scientists in the life sciences. We all use Wikipedia, but women are still underrepresented in the world's largest encyclopedia. With the online edit-a-thon, the BIH has helped to give women scientists more visibility and to attract new authors to bring scientific findings to the public. Read more |
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From 29 – 30 October 2020, Charité and the BIH invited all Early Career Researchers from within the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) to take part in the first annual, discipline-independent online conference under this year's motto: '(In)Credible Research' - for Credibility, Integrity and Reproducibility of Research. More than 150 PhD and postdoc students accepted this invitation and were able to expand their methodological competencies and network. International scientists at different career levels, including among others, BIH Professor Ulrich Dirnagl, offered insights into the demands of academic research and critical comments on scientific practice. (In)credible Research was the prelude to an annual event on good scientific practice. Read more |
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On 30 October 2020 Michael Potente was speaker in the BIH Lecture Series. He is BIH Professor for Translational Vascular Biomedicine and spoke about the influence of metabolic processes on the formation of blood vessels in health and disease. Aberrant angiogenesis is a characteristic and trigger of cancer or inflammation, but therapeutic approaches have so far shown little success. New insights into the metabolic processes that small blood vessels use to form networks open up new possibilities for intervention. Recording of the BIH Lecture |
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The 12th World Health Summit (WHS) took place from 25 – 27 October 2020; this year digitally due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 6,000 participants from over 100 different nations worldwide took part online. The central topic of the conference was the Covid-19 pandemic. Among others, Professor Ulrich Dirnagl, BIH Chairman and Founding Director of the BIH QUEST Center discussed with Christopher Baum, Chief Executive Officer of the BIH, and other guests the changed conditions in health research and for medical translation during and after the corona pandemic. The session by BIH Chairman Professor Christof von Kalle on the subject of "Translation in times of Covid-19" was also very informative. To the session with Ulrich Dirnagl
To the session with Christof von Kalle
To all sessions of the WHS |
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The BIH Translation Hub Organoids and Cell Engineering has opened its third call for project proposals. Until 11 December 2020, hub members are invited to submit their project applications. The hub connects scientists and clinicians from different disciplines and institutes to enable the development of innovative technologies and research projects. Read more |
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