| |
|
No 8/2024 | October Issue
|
|
|
Dear Reader,
Our mission is biomedical translation. Without this bridge between bench and bedside, many groundbreaking discoveries would not realize their full therapeutic potential. But translation requires strong support in order to have a real impact on patients and communities in the long run. That is what makes funding programs that focus explicitly on translation so important. We are delighted to be involved in three current calls for translational funding programs: The first is a new funding line for early-career scientists called “National Translational Tandem Program for Gene- and Cell-Based Therapies (nTTP-GCT),” which the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy developed as part of the National Strategy for Gene and Cell-Based Therapies, an initiative supported by the BMBF and coordinated by the BIH. In addition, the second call for the BIH PhD program has been published and the annual call of our BIH Digital Health Accelerator Program, which recently began, is accepting applications again as well. Information on these calls and other exciting news from the BIH can be found in this newsletter. Happy reading!
Best wishes from your BIH Board of Directors,
Christopher Baum and Doris Meder
|
|
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will launch its new “WomenX Collective” programme at the World Health Summit in Berlin on October 14, 2024 followed the next day by the opening of its first hub office in a planned global network of centres specializing in the promotion of women's health, especially sexual and reproductive health, in the German capital. The Berlin office will be run in cooperation with Charité and the BIH. With their new partnership, UNFPA and Charité aim to promote women's health, particularly in middle and low income countries, as there is still a lack of solutions and financial resources in this area.
Read the press release
|
|
|
DFG Extends Funding Period
|
|
Regulatory T cells (Treg) are a type of immune cell that can suppress harmful inflammation caused by autoimmune diseases or after organ transplants. As a living drug, they are promising for precision medicine, but until now it has been necessary to produce a specific cell product for each patient. The BIH research group led by Professor Julia Polánsky-Biskup wants to use human induced pluripotent stem cells to enable off-the-shelf Treg products and reduce the costs of these therapies. Polánsky-Biskup and her team received a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council ERC worth 150,000 euros for their approach. Congratulations! Read more
|
|
|
News From Charité BIH Innovation (CBI)
|
|
|
This year, four start-ups supported by Charité BIH Innovation (CBI) qualified for the BMBF's GO-Bio initial funding program, including NEUROLITH, SIC, KardioDetekt and Mykopoint. The program promotes the identification and development of early life science research approaches for the seamless transfer of promising ideas into application. In the one-year exploratory phase that started in October, the participating research teams can now refine their commercialization ideas and carry out market and freedom-to-operate (FtO) analyses. Charité BIH Innovation will advise the teams on all matters relating to transfer, intellectual property rights and founding. Congratulations!
Read more
|
|
|
News From the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT)
|
|
|
In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers led by Sara Mitri, Associate Professor at the Department of Basic Microbiology of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne, with the participation of the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), have developed a new method of artificial selection to identify the groups of bacteria that are most efficient in degrading an industrial pollutant.
Read moreRead the publication
|
|
|
News From the Research Group Computational Medicine
|
|
|
In a recently published study in Nature Metabolism, scientists have made important advances in understanding the biological influences on the human plasma proteome. The study was conducted by BIH Professor Claudia Langenberg and her team and analyzed data from 8,350 predominantly healthy, middle-aged men and women from the United Kingdom. Read moreRead the publication
|
|
News From the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA)
|
|
|
On September 11, 2024, the Hot Topic Seminar “Virtual Reality in Mental Health”, initiated and moderated by Dr. Alva Lütt, Fellow of the BIH Charité Junior Digital Clinician Scientist Program, took place at the Paul Gerhardt Stift in Berlin. Guest speakers from the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, as well as experts from the Psychiatric University Hospital Charité at St. Hedwig Hospital and the Digital Surgery Lab Charité gave lectures on topics such as VR biofeedback in affective disorders, VR cue exposure in alcohol addiction, DTx technologies with wearables and embodiment in virtual reality. Read more
|
|
|
News From the BIPOC Network
|
|
|
The BIPOC Network of Charité has launched the event series “BIPOC Network Meetings”. The BIPOC Network is a community for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The term BIPOC highlights the unique experiences and challenges faced by Black and Indigenous people while emphasizing solidarity and the shared struggle against systemic racism . The regular meetings are intended to provide a platform to share, support and strengthen this community. There will be space for discussion, networking and shared learning. The kick-off event will take place on October 18, 2024. The event languages are English, German and Vietnamese. Read more
|
|
|
On November 7+8, 2024, the final ORCHESTRA conference took place in Verona, Italy. The project, funded by the European Commission, ran for four years and was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to generate new knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 infection. It involves a network of 37 partners from Europe and beyond. ORCHESTRA provided important insights into the virus and influenced public health measures across Europe. The BIH contributed to the creation of new knowledge and improved pandemic preparedness through the standardization and harmonization of data. International standard terminologies such as SNOMED CT, LOINC, ATC, ICD and NCIt were used to ensure semantic interoperability between the different studies and languages.
Read more
|
|
|
On September 27, 2024 Christian Meisel was guest speaker of the BIH Lecture Series. In his lecture, the BIH neurologist and physician at the Charité Clinic for Neurology used specific examples from epilepsy, intensive care and stroke medicine to explain the translational path of computational neurology: from basic methodological research to testing and transfer to the patient's bedside to networking with industrial partners with the aim of broad application in everyday clinical practice. The lecture was moderated by Christopher Baum (BIH Board of Directors). Further information on this lecture
|
|
|
Start Diversity Initiative
At this year's GMDS conference, the BIH diversity project group launched its diversity initiative with a workshop in cooperation with colleagues from Dresden. One highlight was Nina Haffer's presentation on the topic “What is sex? And what is gender? And why are both important?”. The diversity group was founded in collaboration with the Dresden site and the preliminary work of SHEHealth. A big thank you to the GMDS team!
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Breaking new ground in science communication together with media professionals: that is the aim of the science x media tandems. Researchers at all stages of their careers at Charité, including the BIH and the German Heart Center (DHZC), or Max Delbrück Center, can apply to Stiftung Charité with an idea, no matter whether they’ve already got a media partner or have yet to find one. We support projects lasting between two and nine months (or on a part-time basis over a longer period of time). Deadlines for this year's call: October 25, 2024 for your expression of interest without a confirmed media partner; January 31, 2025 for submitting a full application in collaboration with your media partner. Read more about the call
|
|
|
After the success of the pilot call last year and some adjustments, BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA) has issued the second call for project submissions for the BIH PhD Program. The BIH PhD program aims to promote interdisciplinarity and support young translational talents. The program will co-fund PhD positions for excellent translational projects that fit one of the four BIH research priorities. Principal Investigators from all research groups with BIH affiliation can submit project proposals until November 20, 2024. Read more about the call
|
|
|
This year’s call for applications for the BIH Digital Health Accelerator Program is live. The target group is all Charité/BIH employees with internal and cross-institutional digital health projects. Funding is available for the development of software-based (medical) products for patients and healthcare systems. This year, we encourage applications also in three focus areas: Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases, Patient Monitoring for Ambulatory Surgical Care, and Pediatrics & Neonatal Care. The application deadline is January 20, 2025. For any questions, please contact us here.
Read more about the call
|
|
|
|
|
|
