Team:Charlottesville RS/Team

Dating back to 1386 the Ruperto-Carola University of Heidelberg [1] is not only Germany's oldest university [2, 3], but - associated with numerous Nobel Laureates [4] - it is also one of Europe's prestigious places for natural, life and medical sciences [5]. For students, however, Heidelberg is not only the starting ground for a scientific career, it also hosts a fountain for inter-cultural relations and friendships [6].

Links:

[http://www.uni-heidelberg.de 1. Ruperto-Carola University of Heidelberg]

[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg 2. Heidelberg on Wikipedia]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Heidelberg 3. University of Heidelberg on Wikipedia]

[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/universities.html 4. University Nobel Laureates]

[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=144 5. The Times Higher Education Supplement]

[http://www.eu.uni-hd.de/ 6. Erasmus Heidelberg]

Bioquant - the abbreviation for Institute of Quantitative Analysis of Molecular and Biological Systems - pursues a rather different foundational concept: to supplement a core of researchers the building provides a working platform, which is accessed by external research groups. Existing expertises in mathematical theory and experimental biology merge in this way to new synergies for research in systems biology - and since this summer also in synthetic biology!

Left you can get an impression of where we work. You could find us in the front building at the far left end of the picture... The building is situated on the campus of the university of Heidelberg.

Links:

[http://www.bioquant.uni-heidelberg.de 1. Bioquant]

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) [1] has just recently been rated by an international panel as one of the leading cancer research institutes - confirmed simultaneously by the award with the Medicine Nobel Prize to Professor zur Hausen, who discovered the Papilloma virus as agent for cervical cancer in 1983. At this time zur Hausen took charge of the DKFZ for the succeeding two decades and lead the institute to its modern approach to Molecular Biology. The Helmholtz-Association - to which the DKFZ belongs - initiated one of the largest programs for systems biology in cancer, which is coordinated from Heidelberg.

Links:

[http://www.dkfz.de 1. DKFZ]

[http://www.helmholtz.de/ 2. Helmholtz Association]

The Rhein-Neckar area - which reaches from Mannheim to Heidelberg (west-east) and from Darmstadt to Karlsruhe (north-south) has witnessed an enormous increase in biotechnological activities over the last decade. This development has been acknowledged several times by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF, read Newspaper Articles in German), which lead to the name of the BioRegio Rhein-Neckar [1]. On the academic side the Technical Universities of Karlsruhe and Darmstadt, the Business schools at University of Mannheim, and the life science based University of Heidelberg form a geographical rhombus that delivers all competences for sustainable growth. Industrial heavy-weights in chemistry (BASF AG in Mannheim), pharmacy (Merck AG in Darmstadt), and software development (SAP AG in Walldorf) strengthen the region in its challenging ambitions. The creation of the technology park in Heidelberg allows start-up companies in biotechnology to tightly cooperate with the neighboring university, the DKFZ and the European Laboratory of Molecular Biology (EMBL). In the left image you can see the ZMBH and the Bioquant building on the main campus and the technology park in the background.

Links:

[http://www.bioregion-rnd.de/welcome.html 1. BioRegio Rhein-Neckar]