To continue the improvement of the clinical research infrastructure in Germany the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) is establishing three new Clinical Research Units. With the decision by the Grants Committee on General Research Support on 3 December 2004 the DFG is now funding a total of 25 Units at 15 German universities. The objective of the programme is to act as an instrument for developing research oriented structures, with the ultimate goal being the institutionalisation of scientific clinical research in Germany. To this end the programme promotes particularly distinguished groups of scientists and innovative research projects at medical faculties. The establishment of a Clinical Research Unit by the DFG is contingent on the university providing half of the funding and establishing a research professorship to head the unit. The funding is intended to last for six years and to support young researchers in particular. In addition, the Research Units are expected to contribute towards enhancing the profile of the participating medical faculties and universities.

The three new units in detail:

Gastrointestinal tumours are responsible for about a quarter of deaths resulting from cancer, and thus constitute a significant clinical problem. The aim of the Clinical Research Unit "Gastrointestinal Tumours: From the Molecular Concept to Clinical Application" at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich is to develop novel therapeutic approaches for treating patients with advanced tumours in the gastrointestinal tract. They aim to use targeted analysis to study the molecular fundamentals of tumour biology.

A new Clinical Research Unit is being established at the Medical Faculty of the University of Lbeck to study glucose regulation in the brain. The researchers involved in the Unit "Selfish Brain: Brain Glucose and the Metabolic Syndrome" will be investigating a new model. They are working on the assumpti
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Contact: Katrin Hagedorn
katrin.hagedorn@dfg.de
49-228-885-2708
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
10-Dec-2004

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