The University of Duisburgessen
A young university delivering excellence in life science
Science and research in the most concentrated university landscape in Europe
The twin-campus University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), located in the centre of the Rhine-Ruhr region, offers a broad, internationally designed curriculum that encompasses the humanities and social sciences, economics, engineering, natural sciences, and medicine, including a university hospital. Founded in 2003, as a result of the merger of two previous academic institutions (the Comprehensive Universities of Duisburg and Essen), this youngest of institutions of higher learning in North Rhine-Westphalia takes its place among the ten largest German universities.
Over 30,000 students have a choice from a vast array of Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. Students from 130 different countries attend the University, and so in addition to German and English, anybody familiar with the campuses of UDE will also be sure to hear many other languages.
Research at...
In a short period, the University has developed a research profile of strong capabilities and assets, enabling it to become one of the leading scientific centers in Germany. The research topics cover wide areas, are interdisciplinary in character and offer many scientists at the University the opportunity to make an impactful contribution.
The Science Support Centre — A unique prerequisite for excellence in research
Science support and management, provided as a service for academic staff is gaining more and more importance and significance — especially now, with the increasing demands on the organization and the extension of academic work.
The new Science Support Centre (SSC) at the University Duisburg-Essen is going to meet the claims of flexibility, efficacy, interdisciplinary and success with the creation of an optimized framework for research, including an innovative form of organization, modified task management and controlling. The SSC already offers an existing and well-established variety of support in the areas of research, technology transfer and start ups (spinoffs), trade conventions, research publications and media. This includes the administrative review of the existing DFG-programs and the handling of central duties set by the DFG (for example, board elections).
Additionally, the SSC supports the scientific staff in their participation in further research funding programs (European Union, German ministries). Support is provided as an active additional service to the academic staff. The transfer of academic results into (economic and industrial) practice, socalled knowledge transfer, is an essential part of the activities of the SSC and the department of patents and utilization Support is given through special events, workshops and individual consultancy.
The area of patents is characterized by a long-term strategy of the University which means continuity and expertise are vital — one of the SSC's main approaches. Moreover, the SSC presents the academic results of the University of Duisburg-Essen at trade conventions and similar events. This enables scientists to present their research results both inside and outside of the university. SSC publications come mainly in print and primarily cover university wide topics (research reports, research magazines, and scientific journals). The SSC department "communication and media" provides an internet-based information service.
With this broad variety of activities the SSC supports the researchoriented academic staff of the University, helping deliver success against the academic competition.
he Center for Medical Biotechnology (ZMB) is an interdisciplinary facility of the University of Duisburg-Essen, integrating medical research of the university hospital with the natural sciences of the campus.
The mission of the ZMB is to explain the molecular mechanisms of disease and to turn this knowledge into medical progress. Accordingly, the ZMB is active in key areas of basic biomedical research, and in the translation of scientific knowledge into novel drugs and diagnostic tools. The 40 research groups of the ZMB combine basic and applied biomedical sciences.
A dynamic, stimulating and collaborative research environment includes state of the art facilities and more than 300 highly educated personnel. Our interdisciplinary research crosses traditional boundaries and involves joint projects with the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, nanotechnology, physics and engineering.
The ZMB hosts several educational programmes in biomedical research. The Bachelor and Master Schemes in medical biology prepare for a scientific career in the biomedical field and graduates have a choice of various PhD programmes.
Research programmes that are relevant to life today Research at the ZMB is structured into four inter-disciplinary programmes. The focus of the first and largest research programme "Oncology" is to understand fundamental processes in tumour biology in order to develop novel molecularly defined and rationally applied cancer treatments. Participating researchers from biology, experimental and clinical medicine use a large variety of approaches, experimental systems and methodologies to analyse many aspects of tumour development, growth, progression and tumour cell migration. Today more than 15 ZMB-research groups are involved in this research programme. They collaborate closely with the West German Cancer Center (WTZ) of the University Hospital in Essen, integrating medical doctors and scientists in 20 clinics and 16 Institutes.
Many pathogens have developed mechanisms to evade immune defence and cause severe disease in the host. The objective of the second ZMB programme "Immunology, infectious diseases and transplantation" is to gain a fundamental understanding of the mutual interaction of pathogens and the immune system, which can be used for developing strategies for immunotherapy and vaccination. An excellent and intense cooperation with the Tongji Medical College, Wuhan, the leading institution for virology research in China, recently resulted in a joint application for a Transregional Collaborative Research Center — SFB/TRR. This consortia project focuses on HIV, Hepatitis B + C, SARS and the research of avian influenza.
A third programme "Genetics, Developmental, Molecular and Cell Biology" comprises research groups with detailed knowledge of chromosome organisation, gene expression, gene silencing, cell biology, cellular interactions and developmental biology. The focus of research aims at understanding the origin, character and progression of epigenetic and neurogenetic disorders, dementias including Alzheimer's disease, as well as ischemic brain diseases and heart diseases.
The fourth research programme "Biomolecular Structure and Function" combines expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, and chemical syntheses to elucidate molecular structures and interactions at atomic resolution, and to develop molecules that specifically interact with biological factors for their use as research tools or as leads for future medical drugs. With help of core-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) biological relevant macromolecules can be analysed at an atomic level. Moreover, the task of the fourth programme is the development and use of computational methods including bioinformatics, molecular modelling, cheminformatics, biostatistics and systems biology. In a latest project, researchers aim at developing a new diagnostic assay for the selective detection of different variants of HI-Viruses suitable for routine diagnostics.
Hence, the ZMB as an interdisciplinary platform of medical and basic research, that allows translational research to develop novel innovative diagnostics and therapies. In particular every day routine of clinicians is a valuable source that gives rise to new ideas for future research projects, which target specifically therapeutic needs.
University of Duisburg-Essen, Campus Essen: Universitätsstraße 2, 45141 Essen, Germany
Tel.: + 49 201 183 - 1 • www.uni-due.de • www.uni-due.de/zmb
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