German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)

Neurodegenerative diseases, which include Parkinson’s disease and dementias such as Alzheimer’s, present an extremely high burden on those affected and their family members, and cause exceedingly high costs to the health-care system. In Germany, about one million people above the age of 65 are currently suffering from the consequences of dementia, and the number of new incidences is about 200,000 per year. As a result of demographic change, this situation will continue to worsen. Without new preventative measures and without developing new therapy procedures, the number of dementia patients will increase to more than four million, 40 per cent of whom will be so severely ill that they can only be cared for in nursing homes. Thus, the federal government decided in August 2007, to set up an institute for neurodegenerative diseases. 

As the 16th research center of the Helmholtz Association the DZNE is unique in two ways: It brings together excellent scientists at nine different sites across Germany and is pursuing an interdisciplinary approach to research. DZNE scientists are located at Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Göttingen, Magdeburg, Munich, Rostock/Greifswald, Tübingen and Witten - and work closely with universities, university hospitals and other partner institutions. This fosters translational research and brings together a critical mass of scientists to strategically coordinate their efforts to find solutions for neurodegenerative diseases. At DZNE fundamental research is tightly interconnected with clinical, epidemiological and health sciences with the aim of finding new diagnostic markers and enabling rapid development of new cures.