The Topic Partners

Addiction is a disease that claims countless lives every year. The DFG Transregio 265 research group is investigating how addicts lose control—and how they can regain it. In addition to Berlin's Charité hospital, Heidelberg University and Dresden University of Technology are also involved in the project.

The Hans and Ilse Breuer Foundation has set itself the task of significantly improving the lives of dementia patients and their families. The purpose of this non-profit foundation is to promote excellent scientific research in the fight against Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, and to provide concrete assistance to those affected and their families.

The non-profit Hertie Foundation is the largest private sponsor of brain research in Germany. Thanks to a donation, it is also a thematic partner in the field of artificial intelligence.

Application-oriented science is incredibly important. In the field of brain research, for example, effective therapies for stroke and dementia could alleviate the suffering of millions of people. However, this form of science owes its ideas primarily to basic research – the kind of research that aimlessly follows the curiosity of researchers. Who then sometimes find the pot of gold. You can find some examples in the corresponding topic, which we implemented with the now expired SFB 870.

The brain's connectome is one of the most exciting fields in neuroscience, representing the next level of anatomy. The team led by Moritz Helmstaedter at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt is a global leader in this field of research.

The Schering Foundation promotes life sciences, contemporary art, and scientific and cultural education. Projects at the interface between science and art are central to the foundation's work. The foundation's goal is to promote exchange between disciplines. It does this here – so to speak – in the exchange between the brain and the gut on the topic of disturbed metabolism.

We are capable of learning new information and subsequently remembering it. However, we can also learn that knowledge acquired in the past is no longer valid, so that we stop responding accordingly. This extinction learning is being researched by DFG CRC 636, DFG Research Group 1581, and, currently, DFG CRC 1280.

Research and therapy have been combined for decades at the Central Institute for Mental Health (ZI) in Mannheim. All methods of modern psychiatric research are brought together in the newly founded “Center for Innovative Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Research.” A good partner for a glimpse into the future of psychiatry.

The Schering Foundation is also supporting us on the topic of the glymphatic system on the occasion of the awarding of the Schering Prize to Maiken Nedergaard.

The non-profit Hertie Foundation is the largest private sponsor of brain research in Germany, and multiple sclerosis in particular is deeply rooted in the foundation's DNA. Thanks to a generous bequest from Heidemarie Hoppe, it is also a thematic partner for MS.

Understanding how knowledge, skills, and even personality are stored in the brain is impossible without understanding neural networks, their structure, and their function. Researchers at the expired CRC 1134 in Heidelberg and Mannheim were investigating micro-networks, while researchers at expired CRC 936 were investigating macro-networks.

The DFG Collaborative Research Center Transregio 43 focused on immune processes that are not only part of classic inflammatory diseases of the nervous system, but also play an important role in the pathogenesis of atypical neuroimmunological diseases. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, and possibly Alzheimer's disease.

By answering questions about the evolutionary function of the ambivalence of pain as both protection and torment, as well as its development into chronic pain and the possibility of preventing it on the one hand and treating it effectively on the other, the SFB 1158 has set itself a research task whose results are eagerly awaited by the general public and with which correspondingly high hopes are associated.

Every year, 250,000 people in Germany suffer a stroke – an alarmingly high number! In order to treat it effectively, we urgently need to know more about its causes and consequences. The two DFG research groups 2795 'Synapses under Stress' and 2879 ‘Immunostroke’ combine basic research with clinical research, investigating not least the “other” brain cells: the glial cells that nourish the neurons. Or dispose of them.

On the one hand, there are the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying all neural activity – we now understand these quite well. On the other hand, we can also describe the higher brain functions of structures and areas fairly well. However, there is a knowledge gap at the level in between – in the networks of nerve cells. Describing these networks both structurally and functionally was the focus of the now expired CRC 870.

Some people seem to be unaffected by old age – they have the cognitive abilities of 50- or 60-year-olds: so-called superagers resist structural wear and tear. The SFB 1436 in Magdeburg is investigating what distinguishes their brains from others. It's a fascinating topic that affects everyone. Because we can all do something about it.

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has only 100,000 neurons and continues to be full of surprises. FOR 2705 focuses on decoding a brain circuit: the structure, plasticity, and behavioral function of its mushroom body. What we have learned from this topic is that even this tiny animal should not be underestimated...

The International Graduate College “Neural Basis of Aggression and Impulsivity in the Context of Psychopathology” (IRTG 2150) investigates a wide variety of aspects of violence. Particularly exciting here is the density of young researchers – with correspondingly progressive approaches.