Press Release: New Virtual Institute at the Helmholtz Zentrum München
Neuherberg, August 5, 2011. The Helmholtz Zentrum München will set up a Virtual Institute for Complex Molecular Systems in Environmental Health together with the University of Rostock and additional research partners. The project will be funded by the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association.
Starting on January 1, 2012, the Helmholtz Association will provide funding for a new Helmholtz Virtual Institute* established in close cooperation between the Helmholtz Zentrum München** and the University of Rostock. Under the aegis of Prof. Dr. Ralf Zimmermann, the scientists of the virtual institute will investigate the health effects of anthropogenic aerosols. Prof. Zimmermann is the director of the Cooperation Group "Comprehensive Molecular Analytics" (CMA) at Helmholtz Zentrum München and holds the Chair of Analytical Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Rostock. Both institutions conjointly operate the “Joint Mass Spectrometry Centre” (JMSC). In addition to the main axis Helmholtz Zentrum München – University of Rostock, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and European partner universities at Cardiff (UK), Luxembourg (LUX) and Eastern Finland (FIN) participate in the virtual institute.
- Scheme of the scientific approach of HICE: In vitro human lung cells (“lung model”) or animals are exposed to freshly emitted anthropogenic combustion aerosols in a definded manner. The biological response is comprehensively characterized. Joint bioinformatical data analysis particularly aims on the detection of biomarkers.
The "Helmholtz Virtual Institute of Complex Molecular Systems in Environmental Health” – HICE – will examine the biological effects of aerosols from relevant anthropogenic sources. Background are the health effects of aerosols from combustion processes (so-called "particulate matter", i.e., emissions from car and/or truck traffic and heating) known from epidemiological studies. In addition to the exact chemical and physical analysis of aerosol composition, their biological effects are investigated using primarily innovative in vitro models of lung tissue. The biological effects of exposure of these model systems to gases and aerosol particles from relevant combustion processes are recorded on the various biological levels (transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, toxicological parameters) using advanced analytical and molecular biological techniques. By adopting a joint comprehensive statistical evaluation of chemical as well as biological data, the participating HICE scientists hope to generate insight into the causes and mechanisms of air pollution-related diseases and to subsequently devise suitable measures for their prevention. A particular aspect of HICE is the investigation of possible health effects of aerosols from biomass burning and biofuel combustion sources, which will gain relevance in the future. The understanding of formation mechanisms of widespread diseases and the development of new diagnostics, therapeutic tools and approaches for prevention is the main goal of the Helmholtz Zentrum München.
Further information
* Helmholtz Virtual Institutes have their own leadership and management structure and develop specific approaches to qualify their junior academic staff. They are funded for about three to five years with a maximum of 600,000 Euros per year from the Initiative and Networking Fund and can be used to prepare larger networks such as the Helmholtz Alliances. In the last four announcement periods 87 Virtual Institutes have been funded with a total amount of around 67 million Euros involving 217 university partners from 55 different German universities. Hereby, around 43 million Euros were transferred to the universities. The funding of the fifth announcement will be up to 32 million €.
** The Helmholtz Zentrum München is the German Research Center for Environmental Health. As a leading center for Environmental Health, it focuses on chronic and complex diseases arising from the interaction of environmental factors and individual genetic predisposition. The center involves approximately 1,900 employees. The major facility is located in Neuherberg in the north of Munich on a 50 ha research campus. The Helmholtz Zentrum München is member of the largest German scientific organization, the Helmholtz Association which joins 17 scientific-technical and medico-biological research centers with approximately 30,000 employees. www.helmholtz-muenchen.de
