The Helmholtz Alliance for Mental Health in an Ageing Society

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Developing new therapies for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease

The Helmholtz Alliance for Mental Health in an Ageing Society (HelMA) is concerned with researching the age-related neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In addition to investigating the molecular mechanisms, the Alliance aims to study the genetic, age-related and environmental causes of neurodegenerative diseases and to facilitate early diagnosis and develop new therapies.

Duration: July 2008 to June 2012
Total funding: €9 million
Lead centre: Helmholtz Zentrum München
Spokesperson: Prof. Wolfgang Wurst
Participating Helmholtz Centres: Helmholtz Zentrum München, DKFZ, MDC, FZJ
Partner Institutes: Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich
Universities: RWTH Aachen, Düsseldorf, LMU Munich, TU München, Tübingen
Businesses: Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH

Programme

The programme is chiefly concerned with linking clinical and basic research. The clinical centres in Jülich, Düsseldorf, Aachen, Munich and Tübingen are closely examining patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to try and uncover any possible genetic causes of the diseases. The results are then analysed in more detail and developed in a lab using cell and animal models. One specific focus of the research is the study of environmental factors, nutrition and lifestyle, as well as the influence of the aging process.

Most of the organisations involved in HelMA can already build on years of fruitful collaboration. A variety of national and international partnerships complement the research activities taking place within the Alliance. One particularly important example is the linking of individual working groups within the National Genome Research Network (NGFN), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Coordinators and partners in the NGFNplus networks Parkinson, Alzheimer, DiGtoP, MooDS and GMC are also all involved in HelMA. Thanks to these connections and especially to the links to the Helmholtz Alliance on Systems Biology, HelMA brings together all the leading players in the field of neurodegeneration in Germany. The Helmholtz Alliance for Mental Health in an Ageing Society played a leading role in establishing the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE).