Research

Our Biocenter is an amalgamation of departments and chairs from the Faculties of Biology, Medicine and Chemistry, collaborating in research and teaching.

It unites scientists who share the conviction that the great questions of biology and medicine can only be answered if they are tackled on each of the organizational levels of biology – from molecules, cells, organs and the whole organism, to interactions between organisms.

Consequently, our researchers are developing the latest methods in molecular biology, cell biology and organismic biology and applying them closely to their respective scientific research.

Research is being done into almost all the important model organisms of the animal and plant kingdoms, including Arabidopsis (Acker-Schmalwand), the fruit fly Drosophila, honey bees, the fresh-water polyp Hydra, the mouse, the clawed frog xenopus, yeast, the zebrafish and the Japanese rice fish medaka. We are researching other increasingly significant models such as trypanosomes, the sleeping sickness pathogens.

Technologies at the interface of several disciplines (such as advanced microscopy, biological High Throughput Screening, massively parallel DNA sequencing and metabolome analysis) are organized as central facilities. They are accessible to all our teams, offering ideal conditions for collaboration.