Two Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) in the fields of medicine and plant genetics will receive financial resources from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a further funding phase. Taken together, the approved CRCs will receive funding including a programme allowance of approximately 27.1 million euros in this funding period, of which approximately 16.9 million euros will remain at the University of Cologne. The remaining funds will go to the collaboration partners.
“The funding approvals underscore the University of Cologne’s strength in collaborative, cutting-edge research. They highlight the outstanding contributions our researchers are making in key fields of the future, including lymph node cancer research and the study of plant responses to global environmental change. I warmly congratulate the researchers and our partners on this remarkable success,” says Professor Dr Joybrato Mukherjee, Rector of the University of Cologne.
CRC 1530 “Elucidation and targeting of pathogenic mechanisms in B cell malignancies”
The CRC 1530 utilizes the strengths of a group of scientists from the fields of lymphoma and inflammation research at the University of Cologne with highly complementary skills and knowledge. It received 10.3 million euros in project funding over three and a half years.
The collaboration between the scientists is based on synergies between the discovery of new mechanisms of disease development and therapeutic strategies. The aim of the consortium is to significantly improve the cure rate in patients with prognostically unfavourable forms of lymph node cancer, so-called lymphomas, through innovative therapies. This is achieved by the efficient interruption of cancer-initiating signaling pathways of the lymphoma cell and the specific modulation of the lymphoma microenvironment.
The spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Centre is the oncologist, Professor Dr Michael Hallek, Director of Clinic I of Internal Medicine and the Center for Integrated Oncology. He says: “The extension of our Collaborative Research Centre honours the outstanding work of the scientists and our partners from Köln, Berlin, Frankfurt, Duisburg, and Essen. For the second funding phase, we are highly motivated to further improve the treatment of patients with lymph node cancer through our research.”
CRC TRR/341 “Plant Ecological Genetics”
The CRC/TRR 341 will be funded by the German Research Foundation with around 11.9 million euros in project funding over the next funding period. The scientists are researching the genetic basis for the reactions of plants to global environmental changes. They are investigating the adaptation of plant species that can grow differently under limited resources, abiotic stress – i.e. stress factors in which living organisms are not directly involved – and competition with other plants. The work of the Collaborative Research Centre provides findings that will support future efforts to preserve natural ecosystems.
The spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Centre is Professor Dr Juliette de Meaux from the University of Cologne. “We are thrilled to hear that our Research Consortium will be funded for another four years. We will continue to dissect the genetic basis of ecological diversification in plants. This second phase will be particularly exciting because we aim to integrate data across species, plant traits and environments, with the help of cutting-edge AI-methods and ambitious models.”
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf is a co-applicant alongside the University of Cologne.