01/04/2022

IMB appoints four Adjunct Clinicians


PRESS RELEASE

1 April – The Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) has appointed four high-profile clinical researchers from the University Medical Center (UMC) of Johannes Gutenberg University as Adjunct Clinicians: Profs. Stephan Grabbe, Susann Schweiger, Oliver Tüscher and Phillip Wild. With the appointment of these new Adjunct Clinicians, IMB will accelerate the translation of discoveries in the lab to clinical applications that benefit patients.

As a centre of excellence in research, the primary aim of IMB’s research is to make scientific breakthroughs that help us understand how our cells work in health and disease. However, it is equally important to translate such scientific findings into medical applications that benefit patients. To promote this knowledge transfer from the bench to the clinic, IMB has now appointed four outstanding clinicians from UMC as Adjunct Clinicians. These appointments will spark new interdisciplinary projects between IMB’s group leaders and clinicians at UMC.

Prof. Stephan Grabbe is an expert in cellular immunology and is working to develop immunotherapies to treat cancers and autoimmune diseases, while Prof. Susann Schweiger researches rare neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders (including Huntington’s disease), with the aim of finding new ways to treat them. Prof. Oliver Tüscher studies ageing in neuronal tissues to discover how we can age more healthily and maintain cognitive resilience with age, while Prof. Philipp Wild’s group combines systems medicine and epidemiology to create tools for early diagnosis of common age-related diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer), as well as to develop tailor-made therapies to treat them. All four Adjunct Clinicians will work with IMB group leaders in the Science of Healthy Ageing Research Programme.

We welcome our Adjunct Clinicians into the IMB community and look forward to collaborating with them in new and exciting research projects.


Further details

Stefan Grabbe, Susann Schweiger, Oliver Tüscher and Philipp Wild are Adjunct Clinicians at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) and Professors at the University Medical Center (UMC) of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Further information about research in the Grabbe, Schweiger, Tüscher and Wild labs can be found at:

www.imb.de/grabbe

www.imb.de/schweiger

www.imb.de/tuescher

www.imb.de/wild

About the Institute of Molecular Biology gGmbH

The Institute of Molecular Biology gGmbH (IMB) is a centre of excellence in the life sciences that was established in 2011 on the campus of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Research at IMB focuses on the cutting-edge fields of epigenetics, genome stability, ageing and RNA biology. The institute is a prime example of successful collaboration between a private foundation and government: The Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation has committed 154 million euros to be disbursed from 2009 until 2027 to cover the operating costs of research at IMB. The State of Rhineland-Palatinate has provided approximately 50 million euros for the construction of a state-of-the-art building and is giving a further 52 million in core funding from 2020 until 2027. For more information about IMB, please visit: www.imb.de.

About the Centre for Healthy Ageing

The Centre for Healthy Ageing (CHA) is a virtual research centre launched in 2021 that brings together scientists in basic and clinical research from across Mainz that focus on ageing and age-related diseases. These findings should be used to promote healthy ageing and to find treatments that could prevent or cure age-related disease. For more information, please visit: www.cha-mainz.de.

About the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

The University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is the only medical institution of supra-maximum supply in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and an internationally recognized science location. Medical and scientific specialists at more than 60 clinics, institutes and departments work interdisciplinarily to treat more than 345,000 patients per year. Highly specialized patient care, research and teaching are inseparably intertwined. More than 3,500 medicine and dentistry students as well as around 670 future medical, commercial and technical professionals are trained in Mainz. With a workforce of approximately 8,700 colleagues the University Medical Center Mainz is one of the largest employers in the region and an important driver of growth and innovation. Find more information online at www.unimedizin-mainz.de/?L=1

Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation

The Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization that is committed to the promotion of the medical, biological, chemical, and pharmaceutical sciences. It was established in 1977 by Hubertus Liebrecht (1931–1991), a member of the shareholder family of the Boehringer Ingelheim company. Through its Perspectives Programme Plus 3 and its Exploration Grants, the Foundation supports independent junior group leaders. It also endows the international Heinrich Wieland Prize, as well as awards for up-and-coming scientists in Germany. In addition, the Foundation funds institutional projects in Germany, such as the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), the department of life sciences at the University of Mainz, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. www.bistiftung.de

Press contact for further information

Dr Ralf Dahm, Director of Scientific Management

Institute of Molecular Biology gGmbH (IMB), Ackermannweg 4, 55128 Mainz, Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 6131 39 21455, Email: press(at)imb.de