Research field Health

Chronic common and ageing-associated diseases such as cardiovascular and metabolic disease, cancer, diabetes, pulmonary illness, disorders of the nervous system and chronic inflammations are becoming ever more significant, and the question of how they are impacted by environmental factors and lifestyles is attracting more scrutiny.

In addition to infections, these diseases form the focus of health research at the Helmholtz Association. Scientists at the Helmholtz centres involved in health research are studying the causes and development of these often complex diseases and are using their findings to develop new strategies for early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. These centres are increasingly drawing on new forms of collaboration with strong partners from medical schools, universities, other research organisations and industry.

The Helmholtz health research centres are making a great effort to overcome the medical, social and financial consequences of the dramatic increase in complex chronic diseases in the population. The Helmholtz Association health centres are excellently positioned to provide impetus on the national level and to accelerate the translation of research findings into patient applications.

The Federal Research Ministry has established German Centres of Health Research in order to extensively expand the high level of scientific expertise at research institutes and clinics, better coordinate expertise and more effectively incorporate findings into applications. These centres are to play a key role in enhancing options for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of major common diseases such as metabolic disorders, infections, cancer, disorders of the nervous system, and cardiovascular and pulmonary disease.

Six Helmholtz centres are partnering with university and non-university institutes for this endeavour: the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU), the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), the Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin- Buch.

Through its member institutions, the Helmholtz Association is providing important expertise to the new German Centres of Health Research, which have also been assigned the task of effectively transforming research findings into clinical applications and strengthening translational medicine. Through the close cooperation of university and non-university partners, the effectiveness of translational medicine will be further improved in the future and the international standing of German health research will be placed on a qualitatively new footing.