The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

is one of the sixteen research centers of the

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (german: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren) is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. ...

. MDC is member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading life sciences research centres in Europe.

The Center

The Max Delbrück Center was founded in January 1992 as the successor to the Zentralinstitut für Molekularbiologie which depended on the

German Academy of Sciences Berlin The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, german: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (DAW), in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent research institution ...

until 1990. The center is named after

-born

Nobel prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureate and biophysicist

Max Delbrück Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück (; September 4, 1906 – March 9, 1981) was a German–American biophysicist who participated in launching the molecular biology research program in the late 1930s. He stimulated physical science, physical scientist ...

. The institute combines basic research in

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

with

clinical research Clinical research is a branch of healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness ( efficacy) of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for human use. These may be used for prevention, treatm ...

, with a focus on multi-organ diseases such as heart failure. The following four areas are central research topics: *

Cardiovascular The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...

and

metabolic Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...

diseases *

Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

research * Function and dysfunction of the

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...

* Molecular

systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological syst ...

The current interim Scientific Director is Dr. Thomas Sommer. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK).

Accolades

The MDC was ranked 14th in the Thompson Reuters list of the world's 20 best research institutes for molecular biology and genetics, based on its publication record.

Max Delbrück Medal

The

Max Delbrück Medal The Max Delbrück Medal has been awarded annually from 1992 to 2013 by the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (German: ''Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin'' or MDC). Named after the German biophysicist Max Delbrück, it is pre ...

has been awarded annually by the Center since its foundation and is presented in

to an outstanding scientist on the occasion of the annual "Berlin Lecture on Molecular Medicine", which the MDC organizes together with other Berlin research institutions and

Bayer HealthCare Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutica ...

. The award recipient usually delivers a lecture after the award.

References

External links

* Buildings and structures in Berlin Genetics in Germany Medical research institutes in Germany Medical and health organisations based in Berlin Molecular biology institutes Research institutes established in 1992 {{Berlin-struct-stub

The Center

Accolades

Max Delbrück Medal

See also

References

External links