In 2004 the Medical Faculty was able to defend its previous position
in the competition for obtaining additional funding for research.
External funding, amounting to € 18.56 million, was around
the level reached in 2003. This included an increase in the proportion
of grants awarded via refereed assessment. Funding from the BMBF
Programme "Improving the efficiency of clinical research
in medical faculties of the former East German states including
Berlin (Charité)" (NBL 3) was used in 2004 by the
Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig to promote young
researchers, to provide equipment for the C4 professors of Biochemistry
II and Physiology II, and for the C3 professor of Health Economy,
including all equipment. The formel.1 programme had the
largest scope of all the Faculty's programmes for supporting young
researchers and comprised project funding with a maximum of €
50,000 for young scientists for one year. In 2004, 14 formel.1
projects received this much-sought support. Within the framework
of the position rotation programme for young doctors who want
to change to a theoretical medical institute for one year to expand
their methodical skills, five rotation positions were awarded
in 2004. Support for young scientists is of particular concern
to the Faculty, and after the NBL 3 support runs out in 2005 this
will be financed by Faculty itself.
The Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig was involved
in two important decision-making processes in 2004. Following
the suggestion of the government to call for a competition to
define top universities and centres of excellence, the University
of Leipzig initiated an intensive and profound process of analysing
scientific competence and further development of research and
strategic concepts at the beginning of 2004. The Medical Faculty
was actively engaged in this right from the start. As a result
of this still on-going process the University of Leipzig organised
their identified competence areas into five clusters. The research
focus of the Medical Faculty lies in research cluster 3 (molecular
and cellular communication, growth and differentiation - biotechnology,
biomedicine and bioinformatics) as well as research cluster 4
(from molecule to behaviour) (as of 14.12.2004).
Parallel to the efforts of the University with respect to analysing
its competences as well as research concepts and strategies mentioned
above, the Medical Faculty pursued intensive discussions associated
with announcing a competition for ideas to direct its research
towards a framework theme encompassing many research areas. At
the end of this process the chosen theme was "Prevention
and Regeneration".
Up to date with health politics, externally effective (as a "trademark"
of the Faculty) an d future-orientated in the sense that the relevance
of prevention in health care and thus also for patient care will
increase at the University Clinic, prevention is also an extremely
interesting objective for medical research. The theme also enables
the Medical Faculty to integrate numerous research projects, supported
by many publications from the clinical facilities, Psychosocial
departments, Environmental Medicine and Theoretical Medicine departments.
The previous central research focuses of the Faculty (neurosciences,
endocrinology, immunology and molecular oncology) all include
this aspect of prevention and new projects could be directed towards
this in depth.
The Centre for Prevention and Rehabilitation founded in the Centre
for Higher Studies at the University of Leipzig offers a platform
for prevention. This Centre is distinguished by its interdisciplinary
and interfaculty nature and concentrates its research on the needs,
efficacy, quality and cost-effectiveness of preventatative and
rehabilitative measures in various areas of the health service.
Therefore, amongst other things, it continues the existing research
focus of the Medical Faculty within the framework of the NBL 3
support from the BMBF on "The development and evaluation
of psychosocial care as a requirement for social and medical technological
change".
Prevention as a framework theme also links to the structured,
international PhD programme at the University. Scientists of the
Medical Faculty were involved in the successful application for
a PhD programme (Postgraduate Degrees at Universities in Germany)
with the title "From signal processing to behaviour".
This took place in association with the Centres for Cognition
Research and for Prevention and Rehabilitation, located at the
Centre for Higher Studies at the University of Leipzig, and with
the active participation of the scientists who held a DFG Postgraduate
College in 2004 under the title " Interneuro: interdisciplinary
applications in neurosciences" (spokesperson: Prof. Reichenbach,
Paul Flechsig Institute for Brain Research) at the University
of Leipzig. The students applying for this postgraduate college
comprised scientists from the Medical Faculty, the Faculty for
Physics and Geosciences, the Faculty for Biosciences, Pharmacy
and Psychology, the Biomedical.Biotechnology Centre (BBZ) and
the Max Plank Institute for Mathematics in the Life Sciences.
Modern methods should shape neuroscience research and PhD training.
In the area of regeneration, the research potential at the Medical
Faculty has continuously grown (BBZ, Institute for Clinical Immunology
and Transfusion Medicine, various clinics such as Neurobiology,
Orthopaedic, Surgery). Building up the BBZ progressed further
in 2004, financially supported by the state (financing with HWP
and EFRE funds). The Molecular Cell Biology professorship allocated
to the Medical Faculty was filed. This means that corresponding
to the conception of the BBZ the Medical Faculty is participating
with two C 4 professors and two young research groups.
Currently, research on regeneration at the University is being
enhanced by the University of Leipzig tackling the first hurdle
in 2004 on the way to applying for a DFG Research Centre for "Regenerative
Therapy" (DFRT). Based on the network of regenerative medicine
initiated in 2002 by scientists from the Medical Faculty (Prof.
von Salis-Soglio, Prof. Bader and Prof. Emmrich), the 1st world
congress on regenerative medicine held in 2003 in Leipzig (Prof.
Bader) and the initiative to form a working group to prepare the
application for a DFG Research Centre (Prof. Emmrich), this has
created a regional network of scientists from the University of
Leipzig, the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and external
non-university establishments. This network's application under
the overall leadership of the University of Leipzig has managed,
along with Berlin and Dresden, to reach the final round in the
competition for a DFG Research Centre - such a centre would receive
funding of 60 million Euro over a period of 12 years. The announcement
from the Frauenhofer Society at the end of 2004 to build up a
Frauenhofer Institute for cell therapy and immunology in Leipzig
also acts as a stimulus for the scientists involved in the application
and for the further development of regeneration research in Leipzig.
The strategy confirmed by the BMBF at the beginning of 2004 to
build up a centre for innovation competence with the title "Innovation
Center of Computer Assisted Surgery" (ICCAS) at the Medical
Faculty was a great success for the scientists and doctors taking
part, particularly from the clinics for Neurosurgery, Ear Nose
and Throat / Plastic Surgery and Heart Surgery. In 2004 the centre
received funding for equipment worth around € 2 million from
the BMBF and SMWK. At the beginning of 2005 the BMBF agreed to
fund two young research groups, each with six young scientist
positions, at ICCAS. Over the next five years the young research
groups will be financed with a total of € 8 million. The
Medical Faculty is providing a C3 innovation professor for computer-assisted
surgery.
Following the ending of eight years funding of the Interdisciplinary
Centre for Clinical Research in Leipzig (IZKF) by the BMBF - the
total sum amounted to €10.4 million - since the beginning
of 2004 the Medical Faculty has financed the Centre entirely out
of its own resources (€ 3.6 million per year). The aim is
to use the research structure and management built up in the IZKF
in cooperation with the Faculty for also establishing and promoting
top quality research at the Medical Faculty in the future. Project
and young scientist support in the IZKF are being continued with
the goal of continually increasing the proportion of performance-related
Faculty research money awarded. Since the beginning of 2004 (following
a positive external referee assessment of the IZKF) 29 projects
in the traditional IZKF focuses of immunology (6), endocrinology
(4), neurosciences (14) and molecular oncology (5), and three
young research groups received internal funding. Four core units
(DNA technologies/East German Reference Centre for microarray
technologies, peptide technologies, fluorescence technologies,
signalling technologies) complete the offer of the IZKF. They
form a central reference point for technical/methodical questions
and contribute to centralising the major resources of the Medical
Faculty, if one considers important large instuments such as microarray
platforms, FACS, DNA sequencers, confocal microscopes, etc.
An interim assessment by the BMBF in October 2004 confirmed that
the Coordination Centre for Clinical Studies (KKS), established
and funded since 1999, showed positive development and a high
degree of competence in supervising clinical trials. The KKS Leipzig
(KKSL) has taken on the scientific supervision and evaluation
of numerous self-initiated studies by doctors at the Leipzig University
Clinic and is also involved in many industry-led clinical trials.
The government's contribution to the funding of the KKSL was once
more stocked up with funds for the paediatric module in 2003,
however funding runs out according to plan in September 2005.
In the last two years the KKSL could continually increase earned
income for its own financing as prerequisite for its further operations
as well as part financing from the Medical Faculty's budget for
research and teaching.
The Medical Faculty has a complex participatory role in the DFG-supported
Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics (IZBI) at the University
of Leipzig. The IZBI's central concept is based on applying interdisciplinary
research between informatics, mathematics and the life sciences
in the two main research areas of 1) genetic evolution and 2)
tissue organisation and signal transduction. The Medical Faculty
provides Prof. Löffler (Institute for Medical Informatics
and Statistical Epidemiology) as the scientific director of the
IZBI, and Prof. Horn (Institute for Clinical Immunology and Transfusion
Medicine) as coordinator of the research group signal transduction
and gene expression. In 2004 there were collaborations with seven
additional establishments of the Medical Faculty. Since 2004,
German Cancer Aid has funded two projects at the IZBI on molecular
causes of cancer diseases (malignant lymphoma and glioma).
The DFG special research area "Protein states with cell
biological and medical relevance", located at the Martin
Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Leipzig
(Faculty for Biosciences, Pharmacy and Psychology, the Medical
Faculty and Faculty for Chemistry and Mineralogy) passed the first
interim assessment in 2004 very successfully and will be carried
on. In the new funded period the Medical Faculty is participating
with four projects from the Institute for Biochemistry (2 projects),
the Institute for Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine
and the Clinic for Dermatology, Venereology and Allergy.
Both the number of projects at the Medical Faculty supported
by the DFG and the sum of the DFG funds received in 2004 increased
compared to the previous year. This encouraging tendency is also
observed with the BMBF projects. Numerous projects in 19 medical
competence networks (2nd period of funding) and additional BMBF
projects from other funded programmes (including nanobiotechnology,
Biochance Plus, EXIST-SEED, growth core BioResponse) as well as
a project from the Impulse and Networking Fund financially endowed
by the BMBF (Helmholz Association e.V.) were approved in 2004.
Added to this are joint projects with industry and commerce in
the state of Saxon, supported by the Saxon State Ministry for
Economy and Employment, and new endowment projects (e.g. Volkswagen
endowment, Robert Bosch endowment). In the 6th research framework
programme of the EU there are now a total of six projects supported
at the Medical Faculty, and the Faculty also provides the coordinator
(Prof. Bader, BBZ) in a joint research project (STREP).
Besides the formel.1 programme mentioned above, the Medical
Faculty expanded its own support for young scientists in 2004
by financing six positively assessed formel.1 projects
from additional in-house funds made available for the purpose,
and by awarding a bonus of 10% of the DFG funds granted in 2003
to scientists with approved DFG project grants. Recently, a programme
to support medical PhD degrees (project funding, e.g. with a grant
for a maximum of 2 free semesters, materials, etc.) was also drawn
up. Introduced at the end of 2004, this MD/PhD programme is aimed
at outstandingly qualified medics and dentists with a good background
in life sciences, as well as recently qualified life science students
who addressed medical questions during their life sciences degree.
As a project-orientated postgraduate study, it should provide
them with the possibility to intensify independent scientific
work and so to gain a further qualification for tasks in research
and teaching. This means they can gain the degrees of Dr. med.
and Dr. rer. nat. (medical postgraduates), Dr. rer. nat. and Dr.
rer. med. or also Dr. rer. med. alone (life sciences).
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