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Understanding Mechanisms

Das Zentrale Nervensystem im Blick: Bildgebende Verfahren sind eine wichtige Grundlage für die Diagnose neurologischer und psychiatrischer Erkrankungen.

The central nervous system at a glance: Imaging techniques are an important basis for the diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Image Credit: www.blickpunktstudios.de/Christoph Reichelt

Gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders is the goal of the scientists involved in the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence at Charité, the medical school operated jointly by Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität.

News from Aug 04, 2015

NeuroCure draws on the proven expertise of partners from within and outside the universities. It is a Cluster of Excellence funded since 2007 within the framework of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. Within this research alliance, scientists working in a total of 47 research groups investigate the function of the nervous system. They aim to gain a better understanding of the underlying disease mechanisms in order to develop effective therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders of our time.

In addition to the two hosting universities, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), the Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), and the Deutsche Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin (DRFZ) are partners in the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence.

At the heart of the research carried out by NeuroCure are cerebrovascular diseases, neuroinflammation, and disorders of functional network structure, with a focus upon typical neurological and psychiatric diseases and other developmental disorders of the brain. The research is dealt with in seven subject areas with a fundamental researcher and a clinical researcher jointly responsible for a research area.

The structural aim of NeuroCure is the development and strengthening of the region in and around Berlin as a location for neuroscience research. This was achieved during the first funding period by establishing 20 new professorships and junior research groups in Berlin that are funded by NeuroCure as well as through better networking of the ongoing interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research activities. This approach is being continued during the second funding period by adding ten additional research groups. In addition, more emphasis is being placed on targeted support for early career researchers and women scientists.

So far four clusters in which Freie Universität is involved received distinction in the Excellence Initiative: