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The Week in Germany: Business and Technology April 5, 2007 The Helmholtz Association in DC, Part Three:
A trio of high-ranking leaders representing the Helmholtz Association, Germany's largest scientific research organization, recently visited Washington and met with top counterparts at the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), among other institutions, to forge bilateral research coalitions, promote the exchange of young researchers between Germany and the United States and clinch a deal on a transatlantic genomic project drawing upon Helmholtz expertise on targeted human-health-related research using mice. The Science Office of the German Embassy in Washington played an important role in bringing the partners together for this particular bilateral agreement. Efforts continue to remove roadblocks so that this valuable cooperation might also be extended to the European level. The Helmholtz Association is a network of 15 research centers in Germany employing nearly 26,000 staff working in six core areas: energy, earth and environment, health, key technologies, structure of matter, transport and space.
Humans and the environment are interdependently related. That's the view of Helmholtz scientists at the GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health in Neuherberg, near Munich. The GSF's special approach to research is based on this particular perspective
and involves the combination of ecological and biomedical research - a
unique concept in Germany's scientific community. Genetics has a key role
to play here. The genome is partly responsible for how sensitively organisms
respond to drugs or harmful influences. This is why an understanding of
the interaction between genome and environment is the starting point for
all research done at the GSF. TWIG editor Karen Carstens caught up with Professor Dr. Günther
Wess, CEO and President of the GSF, a member of the Helmholtz Association
of German Research Centers. What is the main focus of the GSF? What have you discussed with the institute directors you have met at NIH? At the GSF, we contribute to the foundation of future medicine and healthcare
as well as ecosystems: Human health is influenced by many factors which
interact in a complicated way. For this reason, the GSF does about 80%
of its research on health and 20% on the ecosystem. We focus on environmental
health - chronic conditions and illnesses that can be caused or made worse
by environmental factors. These include chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD, or chronic bronchitis and emphysema), neurodegenerative
diseases and diabetes. Many of these diseases result from a combination
of genetic predisposition and the environment - pollution, more dust and
aerosols in the atmosphere, lifestyle and stress - all these factors can
play a part.
At NIH, we met with the director of the Human Genome Research Institute,
the renowned US geneticist Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project.
But our talks were not just about genes. There is much more involved
than that. We also discussed translational research in medicine, which
is a huge topic worldwide and obviously also both at NIH and at Helmholtz.
Translational medicine connects basic research more directly and immediately
with patient care. It refers to the "translation" of basic research
into real therapies for real patients. The emphasis is on the linkage
between the laboratory and the patient's bedside, overcoming the separation
of these things in the past. This has given rise to the expression "from
bench to bedside and from bedside to bench". There is usually a certain
time lag in the field of medical research before a new discovery or product
is translated into new medicine or a new form of therapy and patient care.
What we intend to achieve is a more direct approach that eliminates a
lot of time and a lot of the steps that used to be taken in the process
of getting new treatments to patients.
Is the US further along in practicing translational medicine? We all need to get out of our own isolated "ivory towers".
The US is much further along in the field of translational medicine than
many other countries but it is not quite where it wants to be - yet. Healthcare
is overshadowing a lot of other things - it's the doctor who will need
to make the final implementation, and to monitor the patient process,
so this is about the relationship between physicians and scientists. It's
about removing barriers - some of these may be different in the US or
Germany, but the basic idea is the same.
Where do you see Helmholtz contributing the most to international
research? Where are the linkages with NIH? We can relate to the "roadmap" put forward by (NIH Director
Elias) Zerhouni. Moreover, Helmholtz can act as a role model in a lot
of areas, notably in energy and in large facilities, where our impact
on society is perhaps the greatest. And we can cooperate a lot with NIH
in the health sector. Diabetes or heart palpitations (cardiac disrhythmia) are caused by genetic
factors, and we can find out a lot about these and other diseases through
epidemiological studies that help us isolate the responsible genes. This
is where our mouse clinic comes in. We study mice that have a specific
genetic defect, for instance pertaining to the heart or metabolism, and
we isolate those genes and ask "what do they do?" This is an area where we are working on a greater and deeper cooperation
with NIH, and this is an area where I can honestly say we are world leaders.
It is not often that one can say "German research institutes are
the best at this", but in this case, it's true. We are part
of a Europe-wide EUCOMM consortium to develop mouse mutants for functional
genes in the mouse genome. We feel that the field of interaction between
genes and environment is so important because our research can be connected
directly to the human genome. The importance of this research is not to be underestimated. Look at
this recent WHO (World Health Organization) chart tracking global morbidity
rates for specific diseases - HIV/AIDS, heart disease, depression. I was
surprised to see how high up depression is on this list, but I was less
surprised to see that rates of death from diabetes and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD) are going to rise dramatically in the coming
years. These are among the grand challenges facing society which Helmholtz seeks
to tackle via its "think big" strategy. We are fortunate in
that the GSF is located near two top German universities in Munich, the
Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU), and the Technical University (TU)
- which were singled out in the government's "excellence initiative"
as two of German "elite universities". We work closely with
these universities. How far along are you in your cooperation with NIH on the genomic
Knockout Mouse Project? Because of serious legal issues regarding the international transfer
of live mice and other "biological materials", IPR and liability,
for several years, researchers in both countries were quite unable to
cooperate. Thanks to the (German) Embassy in DC, this was brought to our
attention. Now, after the visit of a NIH delegation to Munich last year,
a lot of legal work by legal experts on both sides, and decisions taken
by the GSF leadership, we were able to tell our NIH hosts that we had
now removed all the roadblocks. We feel encouraged, and are looking forward
to working together with our fellow researchers at NIH.
Professor Dr. Günther Wess has been CEO and President of the
GSF since 2005. From 1982-2004 he worked in the pharmaceutical industry
in several R&D and management functions. He joined Hoechst AG in 1982,
where he was head of lab, deputy head of the metabolic diseases group,
head of central pharma research, and global head of Chemistry and Chemical
Development. In 1998 he assumed responsibility as head of R&D in Germany
of HMR as well as of Aventis, and in 2002 he became head of R&D in
France and Europe. Wess studied chemistry at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe
University in Frankfurt/Main, where he earned his PhD in 1982. Currently,
he teaches at his alma mater in Frankfurt on principles of R&D management
and case studies in drug discovery and development. Links:
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