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No 1/2025 | January/February Issue
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Dear Reader,
We have started the new year full of energy and already have some good news to share with you. On January 1, 2025, the BIH Governing Board appointed Dr. Doris Meder as the new Administrative Director. She had been serving in the role in an interim capacity since March 1, 2024, in addition to heading the Strategic Science Management division and the BIH Core Facilities. We warmly congratulate her and look forward to continuing to work with her in this important role!
Another highlight is the launch of Recovery Cat, an app that provides digital therapy support to people with severe mental illnesses. This demonstrates once again the success of Charité BIH Innovation’s translational development programs, which provide tangible benefits to a broad spectrum of patients. Effective immediately, patients who are insured with Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) can use the Recovery Cat service free of charge. The cooperation with TK is a great and very tangible example of how quickly the active promotion of medical translation can generate a wide range of practical applications. In this first newsletter of the year, you’ll learn more about Recovery Cat and other exciting news from the BIH. Happy reading!
Best wishes from your BIH Board of Directors,
Christopher Baum and Doris Meder
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Recovery Cat is an app that provides digital therapy support to people with severe mental illnesses. Effective immediately, patients who are insured with Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) can use the Recovery Cat service free of charge. Further insurances will follow. A spin-off from Charité and the BIH, Recovery Cat is thus now being incorporated into real-life care settings. This once again demonstrates the success of Charité BIH Innovation’s translational development programs, which provide tangible benefits to a broad spectrum of patients. Read the press release
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The consortium project CURE-ME (Characterizing AUtoimmuneREsponses and Defining Targets in ME/CFS) between the BIH, Charité and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) will receive a total of €1,817,508 in grant funding from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through 2027. Led by immunologist Professsor Birgit Sawitzki, the consortium aims to study the pathomechanisms of post-infectious ME/CFS, identify biomarkers for a more precise and early diagnosis, and develop innovative approaches for new treatment strategies. Its research will focus on examining the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as the driving force behind misdirected, autoreactive T and B cell responses, and thus as the cause of ME/CFS. Read moreMore information about the project (in German only)Birgit Sawitzki in a video portrait
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VADYS-ME, a research project carried out by Charité in cooperation with the Technical University of Munich is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 2.6 million euros. The project investigates how vascular problems and circulatory disorders can trigger symptoms such as extreme fatigue and concentration problems in patients with ME/CFS. It is led by Professor Wolfram Döhner, a scientist at the BIH and the German Heart Center at Charité. The aim is to better understand the causes and mechanisms of this stressful disease and to develop new approaches for diagnosis and treatment. Read moreMore information about the project (in German only)
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A research team including Dr. Llorenç Solé Boldo and Professor Simon Haas from the BIH, and other researchers from the Heidelberg Medical Faculty, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Max Delbrück Center has discovered new details about the spread of the incurable bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma in the body: When the cancer cells break out of the bone and multiply outside the bone marrow, a wide variety of tumor cells arise, accompanied by a significantly altered immune response. The findings, published online in the journal “Science Immunology,” could be crucial for the further development of diagnostics and therapy. Read the press release of the Universitätsklinikum HeidelbergRead the publication
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Continuing the National Strategy for Gene and Cell-Based Therapies
The National Strategy for Gene- and Cell-Based Therapies published on June 12, 2024 is a decisive step towards bringing cutting-edge research into clinical application, strengthening innovation and ensuring Germany's competitiveness in the global biotech sector. However, in order to exploit the full potential of these ground-breaking therapies, sustained political support is required. In a letter to the future federal government, the Berlin Institute of Health calls for the continuation of funding for the national strategy beyond 2026 in order to continue implementing key measures. It also highlights the opportunities and challenges of gene- and cell-based therapies in Germany.
Read more (in German only)
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On January 1, 2025, the Governing Board of the BIH appointed Dr. Doris Meder as Administrative Director. She had previously assumed this role from her predecessor Dr. Michael Frieser on an interim basis since March 1, 2024, in addition to heading the Strategic Science Management division and the BIH Core Facilities. 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). Our warmest congratulations! Read more
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Dr. Maik Pietzner receives a W2 professorship for life for “Health Data Modeling” at the Translational Research Department of the BIH. His aim is to find disease-specific small changes in genes and thus target structures for innovative drugs. Using machine learning (ML) to mine huge amounts of heterogenous data sources, he wants to identify new therapeutic approaches for many common diseases for which there is still a lack of effective and safe drugs. Dr. Maik Pietzner has been at the BIH since 2021 and has worked with Professor Claudia Langenberg in the Computational Medicine group. In 2023, the European Research Council awarded him an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros over five years. Congratulations! Read the press release
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News From The BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT)
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A research team led by Professor Georg Duda is endeavoring to innovate tissue engineering at the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT). In cooperation with industrial partner Cellbricks Therapeutics Inc., the team integrated a modern, light-based bioprinter that can produce these tissues by precisely combining different cell types with other clinical-grade biomaterials. It is currently used for research and development processes that are designed to transition seamlessly into cleanroom facilities. This will ensure the safety and quality of 3D-printed tissues for clinical applications. Read more
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News From the Research Group Computational Medicine
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In cooperation with researchers from the Universität Freiburg, Noah Hollman from our research group Computational Medicine published a paper in "Nature" on how the AI model TabPfN can help to make predictions on tabular data out of smaller data sets easier and better. Read moreRead the publication
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News From the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA)
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New Personal Funding Program Stars With 18 Translational Talents
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Leadership Program “Effective and Efficient Decision-Making”
From May to July 2025, the Charité flagship program of the Berlin Leadership Academy will once again be run by the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA) as part of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). The program “Effective and efficient decision-making - confident leadership in challenging situations” aims to show professors and managers from the university context how to make decisions in challenging situations in line with their roles and tasks and develop decision-making strength as a leadership skill. Registration is now open for the three workshops on May 16, June 6 and July 11, 2025.
Read more (in German only)
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News From Charité BIH Innovation (CBI)
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News From the BIH QUEST Center
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BIH QUEST members Olmo van den Akker and Silke Kniffert have been elected to the steering group of the German Reproducibility Network (GRN). The GRN is a cross-disciplinary consortium that aims to increase trustworthiness and transparency of scientific research by investigating and encouraging the factors that contribute to robust research. Read more
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The BIH QUEST Center recognizes the work of BIH and Charité scientists who integrate key aspects of transparent and robust biomedical research in their studies. Authors who e.g. reuse research data, publish NULL results, involve patients and other stakeholders in the research process, preregister preclinical studies, or replicate studies, are eligible to receive a prize of EUR 1.000. We look forward to receiving your application!
Further information: QUEST Awards
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Are you a woman*, gender queer or non-binary person in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) and passionate about your science? Have you been waiting for that perfect opportunity to talk to people about your work? Then Soapbox Science Berlin is waiting for you. Apply now to be one of our 12 speakers. Deadline February 21, 2025!
Read more
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Joint Partnership Funding 2025
The Berlin University Alliance offers flexible funding for researchers who wish to expand their collaboration with colleagues at the strategic partner institutions the University of Melbourne (UoM) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Tandems from both the Berlin University Alliance institutions and one of the above partner institutions are eligible to apply. We invite proposals for collaborative projects, such as the preparation of joint publications, the organization of workshops and/or exhibitions, and beyond. Applications can be submitted before 25 February 2025.
Further information on the call and application for:
Melbourne (UoM)
Singapore (NUS)
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Become a gusest scientist in Berlin, initiate new collaborations and implement new research projects: The call for applications for this year's Visiting Fellows ends on February 24, 2025 (11:59 pm). Information in English can be found here.
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