Intro

As one of the four main research areas at the University of Duisburg-Essen, „Biomedical  Sciences“ connects basic research in the natural sciences with clinical and diagnostic  research and thus represents the link between the activities at University Campus Essen,  University Hospital Essen and the site of the UNESCO World Heritage Zollverein, and  the two central scientific institutions, namely the Centre for Medical Biotechnology  (ZMB) and Erwin L. Hahn Institute (ELH). The insights gained through interdisciplinary  research are intended to help better understand the causes of widespread human  diseases, improve diagnosis, and deliver starting points for novel therapies.

The Centre for Medical Biotechnology (ZMB)  provides the framework for research in Biomedical  Sciences at the UDE and connects basic  research in the natural sciences on campus with  applied medical research at Essen University  Hospital (UK Essen).

Working with and alongside the main research  area is the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic  Resonance Imaging (ELH) (see page 128) a joint  institution of the UDE and Radboud Universiteit  Nijmegen (RUN).

The ZMB currently comprises 66 research  groups from the Faculties of Biology, Medicine  and Chemistry on the Essen Campus and at the  UK Essen, and groups from the Max Planck Institute  of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund. A  special feature of the work in Biomedical Sciences  are the joint professorships between the faculties,  two in the Faculty of Biology and two in Medicine,  which have been introduced since 2011 and  are now fully established. Through them it is possible  both to advance qualified and interdisciplinary  research at the ZMB and promote training  and education within the interdisciplinary degree  programme in Medical Biology. In 2017 Elsa  Sánchez-García (Computational Biochemistry)  was appointed to a further joint professorship  between Biology and Chemistry.  Research is concentrated in three programmes:

• ‚‚ Oncology

• ‚‚ Immunology, Infectious Diseases and Transplantation

• ‚‚ Molecular and Chemical Cell Biology

The ongoing development of the ZMB as an  interdisciplinary research institution received  added impetus when an external advisory board  was set up in 2014. The members of the ZMB  Scientific Advisory Board are the Nobel laureates  Prof. Robert Huber (Munich), Prof. Erwin  Neher (Göttingen) and Prof. Kurt Wüthrich  (Zurich), and university professor Prof. Frauke  Melchior (Zentrum für Molekulare Forschung  Heidelberg, ZMBH) and Prof. Thomas Sommer  (Max Delbrück Center Berlin). Essen’s strength as  a research location is apparent from its success in  recruiting highly qualified scientists and attracting  talented students and funding for collaborative  research projects. This reflects the interdisciplinary  research approach within the ZMB,  especially in the joint research and collaborative  projects of the three participating faculties in the  thematic fields.

The highly productive research activity itself is  reflected in the large number of scientific publications  in peer-reviewed scientific journals, which  has also remained at a constant level of around  500 or more over the past two years. Of those,  around 60 appeared in leading international journals  (impact factor >10) each year, an indication  of the high quality of the published research.