Dear Readers,

New findings reveal that the body undergoes significant, systematic changes across multiple organs during prolonged periods of fasting. The results demonstrate evidence of health benefits beyond weight loss, but also show that any potentially health-altering changes appear to occur only after three days without food. The study advances our understanding of what’s happening across the body after prolonged periods without food. Claudia Langenberg, Professor for Computational Medicine at the BIH and Director of Queen Mary’s Precision Health University Research Institute (PHURI) at Queen Mary University of London, UK, is the leader of this study, which has recently been published in the journal Nature Metabolism.

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Scientists still are not sure how neurological symptoms arise in COVID-19. Is it because SARS-CoV-2 infects the brain? Or are these symptoms the result of inflammation in the rest of the body? A study led by Professor Christian Conrad, head of the research group Intelligent Imaging at the BIH and Dr. Helena Radbruch, head of the Chronic Neuroinflammation working group at the Department of Neuropathology at Charité has now produced evidence to support the latter theory. It was published recently in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

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On March 1, 2024, Dr. Doris Meder, Head of Strategic Science Management and the BIH Core Facilities, also assumed the role of Administrative Director of the BIH on an interim basis. Dr. Michael Frieser, who had held the role of Administrative Director at the BIH since September 2021, moved to Helmholtz Munich as Administrative Director on March 1, 2024. Doris Meder is a biochemist and did her doctorate on mechanisms of cell polarity in epithelial cells. Before joining the BIH in 2017, she worked in grant management at ETH Zurich, in technology transfer and scientific coordination at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (MPI-CBG), established the Core Facilities Program of the Centre of Genomics Regulation in Barcelona and headed the Office of the Managing Director at the MPI-CBG as well as the establishment of the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD).

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On January 19, 2024, Cristina Petersen, in-house lawyer at the BIH and head of the BIH Law and Major Policy team, also took over as Head of the Business Division Administration, which was previously held by Dr. Michael Frieser. Cristina Petersen completed her first and second state examinations in Munich and has many years of professional experience as a lawyer and in-house lawyer in an international company. She has been working for the BIH since 2018. She will accompany the change of management in the Board of Directors at the Institute at an administrative level and will be responsible for the processes in the business area.

Dr. Christian Meisel, a physician and neuroscientist at the BIH and Charité, has been awarded funding for an endowed chair of computational neurology from the Hermann and Lilly Schilling Foundation for Medical Research. The Schilling Foundation has been funding outstanding clinically oriented basic research in neurology for 50 years. To mark this anniversary, it invited applications for a chair in computational neurology. Meisel and his team conduct AI-supported research that develops, among other things, new approaches to treating people with epilepsy and patients in intensive care: They are working on real-time-capable monitoring systems that can enable continuous risk assessment and, if necessary, facilitate early therapeutic intervention. The chair is endowed with €3 million over eight years. Congatulations!

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Last month, the BIH Digital Health Accelerator (DHA) proudly welcomed its seventh cohort consisting of nine teams. This exceptional class of innovators from clinical practice and research aims to address cancer diagnostics, neuromuscular diseases, urogenital complications, and more. During Stage 1 of their progression through the BIH DHA Program, teams are guided and supported by funding, expert mentoring by subject matter experts and industry professionals, a robust network of talent and development partners, and access to the interdisciplinary work environment at the BIH DHA ‘Digital Labs’ co-working space.

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On February 28, 2024, the team of Charité BIH Innovation (CBI) – the joint technology transfer of Charité and BIH – was delighted to receive a visit from Professor Heyo. K. Kroemer, Chairman of the Executive Board of Charité, Professor Joachim Spranger, Dean of Charité, Professor Christopher Baum, Head of the Translational Research Department of Charité and Chairman of the BIH Board of Directors, and Dr. Doris Meder, Acting Administrative Director of the BIH. In addition to exciting insights into the work of the IP & Licensing, SPARK-BIH, Digital Health Accelerator and Match & Connect teams, current development projects showed how their innovative approaches can be used to benefit patients. The visit was complemented by a round table discussion on the impact of research through transfer on society and on how to motivate more scientists to engage in transfer.

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How can trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) be brought to market more efficiently and its uptake facilitated across Europe? To answer this question, in early 2023 the European Union launched four sectoral Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs) for AI under its "Digital Europe" program. After a year of construction, the TEFs were opened on March 4, 2024, in Charité's Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus under the motto "All TEFs Open for Business" and are now ready for operation. The TEF-Health project, together with the three other TEF projects from the fields of agriculture (agrifoodTEF), manufacturing (AI-MATTERS) and smart cities (CitCom.AI), had invited to the joint event in Berlin. Here, the four TEFs presented their results and processes to the AI community for the first time.

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On February 23, 2024, Peter N. Robinson gave his first lecture at the BIH as Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Artificial Intelligence. The bioinformatician is a pioneer in the computational genome and phenotype analysis of genetic diseases. His major work has been the development of the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO), which is now a standard tool used globally to diagnose gene-related diseases. In his talk, Robinson reviewed their work in using HPO and other resources for computational precision medicine in rare and common disease. The lecture was moderated by Professor Christopher Baum, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the BIH.

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All BIH events are noted in our event calender. If you would like to receive a regular overview of upcoming BIH Events, please register here. Many thanks.

This year's university ideas competition "Research to Market Challenge" has started! We are looking for innovative ideas for products, processes, applications and/or business models related to Charité research, particularly in the Healthcare & Prevention competition category. In addition to prize money totaling 12,000 € and awards for the best future solutions, participants will receive feedback from experts on the exploitation potential of their research results and will be shown further ways forward. Application deadline is April 5, 2024. For this year's competition – in addition to the opportunity to send the idea to info@marketchallenge.de by April 5, 2024 – there are two more information events: On March 14, 2024, an impulse day with inspiring founders and scientists will take place for all interested parties in House 1 of the Technical University and a few days later, on March 19, a workshop day at the same location to sharpen your idea(s) and work them out accordingly.

Further information and registration
To register for the workshop day on March 19, 2024

The Oxford Berlin Research Partnership is once again offering flexible funding for networking activities with researchers at the University of Oxford in order to promote the initiation of new collaborations and research projects or the continuation and strengthening of existing ones. All members of BUA institutions are eligible to apply and up to € 3,500 per project can be applied for (up to € 5,000 if at least two BUA institutions are involved). For the first time, members of BR50 institutions are also eligible to apply in this round. Applications can be submitted until March 20, 2024 and projects or trips should be carried out between May 1, and November 30, 2024.

Further information and registration

agi.it, 8.3.2024: Continua a Berlino il viaggio al femminile di 'STEM Passion'