ERC Consolidator Grant: Six million euros for three scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen

The HMGU has been awarded 14 ERC grants up to this year, placing it at the top of the Helmholtz Association in terms of the number of grants. The HMGU's particularly remarkable triple award of the ERC Consolidator Grants underscores the Center's scientific excellence. This type of grant is intended to support young scientists on the way to consolidate their independent research and also to counteract the brain drain, where talent disappears abroad. Prof. Dr. Daniel Razansky is head of the "Multiscale Functional and Molecular Imaging Group" at the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging, PD Dr. med. Irmela Jeremias is head of the "Apoptosis" group in the Gene Vectors Research Unit and Prof. Dr. Mathias Heikenwälder is head of the "Inflammation induced tissue damage" junior group at the Institute of Virology. Razansky, for example, is examining a new, non-invasive method to visualize fast spatio-temporal activity patterns of large neural cell populations in whole living brain. "Observations of this type are currently not possible. If our work is successful, vast progress in our understanding of brain's function and development of new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders is expected," says Razansky.

Jeremias is examining, how tumours of individual patients are treated in a targeted fashion. "The challenge is to understand which genetic anomalies are crucial for individual tumours," explains Jeremias. "If we align the treatment against an essential lesion, we make tumours shrink." Using acute leukaemia as model illness and tumour cells from Munich patients, she develops precise, personalized treatments.

Heikenwaelder received the award for research into the cellular and metabolic activation of the immune response in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver and liver tumours in humans. "With the steady rise in the population's obesity, we are seeing increased occurrence of non-alcoholic fatty liver and the metabolic syndrome associated with it, as well as diabetes and liver cancer," Heikenwaelder explains. "The origin of the illness is not precisely known, however, and consequently there is currently no efficient treatment to reduce the fatty liver and liver cancer development." Heikenwaelder is tracking down an interaction between immune system cytotoxic T-cells and liver cells that lead to the liver disorder. In his project he is investigating molecular mechanisms that lead to fatty liver disease and liver tumours. A better understanding of these processes is opening up new approaches to further treatments.

Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres