Helmholtz Zentrum München

The Helmholtz Zentrum München is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and is responsible for studying environmental health issues. Founded in 1964 as ″Gesellschaft für Strahlenforschung″ (GSF), it is a joint project of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Bavaria's Finance Ministry. Nowadays the Helmholtz Zentrum München's focus is to investigate chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, lung diseases, illnesses of the immune system or mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases.

The head office of the center is located in Neuherberg to the north of Munich. Helmholtz Zentrum München has 1700 staff members. Helmholtz Zentrum München belongs to the Helmholtz Association, a German research organization with 16 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centers.

History

In 1964 the ″Gesellschaft für Strahlenforschung″ (GSF) was founded as an autonomous limited company engaged in radiation research. With the foundation of the "Institute of Ecological Chemistry" 1969 a new research field was developed. The name of the Center changed 1971 in "GSF - Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung". In 1977 the center started a concentration process on radiation and environmental research. A new orientation towards environmental health was reflected 2008 in the name change to "Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health". (see also research highlights with disease focus)

Infrastructure

Institutes and Research Units

Diabetes Research

• Institute for Diabetes and Cancer
• Institute of Diabetes Research (IDF)
• Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases (IDM)
• Institute of Diabetes and Obesity (IDO)
• Diabetes- and Regeneration Research (IDR)
• Institute of Experimental Genetics (IEG)
• Research Unit Genome Analysis Center (GAC)

Lung Biology and Allergy Research

• Institute of Lung Biology and Diseases/ Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC)
• Institute of Allergy Research (IAF)

Genetics and Stem Cell Biology

• Institute of Human Genetics (IHG)
• Institute of Stem Cell Research (ISF)
• Research Unit Stem Cell Dynamics (SCD)
• Research Unit Sensory Biology and Organogenesis (SBO)
• Institute of Developmental Genetics (IDG)
• Research Unit Comparative Medicine (AVM)

Epidemiology and Health Economics

• Institute of Epidemiology I (EPI I)
• Institute of Epidemiology II (EPI II)
• Institute of Genetic Epidemiology (IGE)
  • Research Unit Molecular Epidemiology (AME)
• Health Economics and Health Care Management (IGM)

Radiation Research

• Research Unit Medical Radiation Physics and Diagnostics (AMSD)
• Institute of Radiation Biology (ISB)
• Institute of Radiation Protection (ISS)
• Research Unit Radiation Cytogenetics (ZYTO)

Systems Biology, Imaging and Structural Biology

• Institute of Structural Biology (STB)
• Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging (IBMI)
• Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (IBIS)
• Institute of Computational Biology (ICB)
  • Research Unit Scientific Computing (ASC)
• Research Unit Protein Science (PROT)

Infection and Immune Biology

• Institute of Pathology (PATH)
  • Research Unit Analytical Pathology (AAP)
• Institute of Molecular Toxicology and Pharmacology (TOXI)
  • Research Unit Cellular Signal Integration (AZS)
• Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology and Tumor Genetics (KMOLBI)
  • Research Unit Molecular Epigenetics (MEG)
• Institute of Molecular Immunology (IMI)
  • Research Unit Molecular Immunoregulation (AMIR)
• Institute of Virology (VIRO)
• Research Unit Gene Vectors (AGV)

Ecosystems Biology

• Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology (BIOP)
  • Research Unit Environmental Simulation (EUS)
• Comprehensive Molecular Analytics (CMA)
• Institute of Soil Ecology (IBOE)
• Institute of Groundwater Ecology (IGOE)
• Research Unit Microbe-Plant Interactions (AMP)
• Research Unit BioGeoChemistry and Analytics (BGC)
• Research Unit Environmental Genomics (EGEN)
• Research Unit Plant Genome and Systems Biology (PGSB)

Helmholtz Graduate School Environmental Health

The Helmholtz Graduate School Environmental Health (HELENA) was opened on November 1, 2010. It is a joint initiative for the promotion of doctoral students of the Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and the Technische Universität München (TUM).

With its focus on Environmental Health, interdisciplinary research activities will concentrate on the interaction between individual genetic predisposition, environmental factors and individual lifestyle habits, thus illuminating the pathogenesis of common, complex diseases such as diabetes mellitus and chronic lung diseases.

Comprehensive Pneumology Center

The Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC) is an institution combining three partners: Helmholtz Zentrum München, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) with its University Hospital and the Asklepios Fachkliniken München-Gauting. Helmholtz Zentrum München is responsible for basic and applied research. LMU is with its medical faculty provides results in the area of pulmonary research and medical treatment. The third partner, Asklepios Fachkliniken München-Gauting is a hospital specialized in lung diseases.

External links

• Helmholtz Zentrum München
• Helmholtz Graduate School Environmental Health
• Helmholtz Association
• Comprehensive Pneumology Center