Interview
“We are at the dawn of a golden age”
Picture: DZNE / Marcus Gloger
Joachim Schultze discusses the potential of big data and AI to treat neurodegenerative diseases – and what he can learn from cancer research as the new head of DZNE.
Professor Schultze, did you feel like an outsider when you joined DZNE in 2015 – an immunologist among all those neurologists?
(laughs) Some might call it being an outsider, but I see myself as someone who brings new ideas into an organization. DZNE approached me back then because they were looking for someone working in systems medicine …
Systems medicine?
That is the field concerned with how different disease mechanisms are connected and influence one another. Data science and mathematical modeling play just as important a role as the life sciences and medicine. At its core, it is about identifying molecular patterns that recur across the course of many diseases and offer clues to what is happening at the molecular level.
What prompted you to delve so deeply into data?
I had a lightbulb moment in the late 1990s. I was doing research at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Todd Golub worked one floor above me. He used a technique that, even before DNA sequencing was invented, could measure which genes were present in different cells. He was the first to apply it to a specific disease, making major advances in the treatment of leukemia. The underlying principle remains the same today: if I measure a large number of parameters, I can identify patterns in the data.
So a precursor to what we now call data science?
Exactly. I firmly believe that data science is as important to medicine today as mathematics was to physics in the past – who can imagine physics without mathematics today? In recent years, we have been among those demonstrating how enormously medicine benefits from data science. And I am very proud of the small contributions DZNE has been able to make.
How exactly does this influence research into dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases?
I firmly believe that we are at the dawn of a golden age in neurodegeneration research. The difficult years of setbacks, with hypotheses that did not hold up and clinical trials that failed, are now giving way to a new phase. I like to draw a parallel with cancer research. There, pathologists, geneticists, molecular biologists, and others helped us understand the disease and develop new treatments – alongside oncologists. Exactly the same thing is happening in neurodegeneration now.
Can you give an example?
Certainly. Scientists recently found that older adults who had been vaccinated against shingles had a much lower risk of developing dementia than people of the same age who had not been vaccinated. In the past, a finding like that would have been dismissed with a smile because it had nothing to do with amyloid – the protein long considered the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Now, at last, researchers are asking what role viruses play in dementia and how the immune system is involved. This is a real shift in mindset, in how we approach the problem. The field is finally opening up.
Is DZNE equipped for this?
DZNE building in Bonn. Picture: DZNE
The very fact that I, an immunologist with a background in data science, now have the opportunity to lead a center for neurodegenerative diseases is remarkable. I find that humbling – but I also see it as a sign. For one thing, we are embracing interdisciplinary research. For another, we are finding innovative ways to work with data – something that AI is now transforming profoundly.
AI is facing considerable criticism at the moment.
We are not afraid of AI, even though fears about it are currently being stoked. We can use it in medicine to help us understand diseases and develop new treatments.
How will this new focus be reflected in DZNE’s structure?
When DZNE was founded in 2009, its structure was still very traditional: we had a division for basic research, another for clinical research, and so on. That was absolutely the right model at the time – but we now realize that connecting these large divisions is not always easy. We also see that some discoveries happen by chance – certain molecular mechanisms underlying a disease, for example. We want to build a structure that helps us actively drive such discoveries.
What will that structure look like?
We are adopting what is known as a matrix structure. To do this, we are establishing new thematic focus areas. Cognitive disorders, for example, are one such area, encompassing Alzheimer’s disease and many other forms of dementia. In effect, we are creating a mechanism that brings together people working on similar questions from different angles. Suddenly, basic research moves much closer to translation – turning research findings into practical applications.
Matrix structures like these already exist in cancer research …
… and they brought tremendous momentum to the field, leading to the first treatments that target the underlying causes of disease. We want to give our own field that same boost. We already have the most important ingredient: the outstanding people who conduct research at DZNE.
Are other research centers in your field already taking similar approaches?
We are creating a blueprint for neurodegeneration research worldwide – and that is not just my assessment; it was the feedback we received during our evaluation this summer.
That sounds as though no stone will be left unturned.
We will at least lift every stone – and if it is in the right place, we will put it back. Many things about this organization are already fantastic. And we are taking an evolutionary approach to change. The cancer centers took ten years to restructure – we want to do it in half that time.
You regularly rank among the world’s most highly cited researchers. If you have less time for your own research in the future, what will give you satisfaction in your new role as Chair of the Executive Board?
Making things happen. Here is an example: we are currently setting up a very special project called NeuroGenomeHub, built around a unique genomic database. Over the next two years, we aim to collect genetic information from around 25,000 people – there is no other project of comparable scale anywhere in the world. This is made possible by a technological leap in sequencing methods that we want to take full advantage of. The resulting data will allow us to identify abnormal repeats in genetic sequences, which are important in neurodegenerative diseases. This will help us better understand Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and many other diseases. Working with outstanding people to make an unprecedented project like this possible in the first place – that is what fascinates me, and why I do this.
Professor Joachim Schultze is the new Scientific Director and Chair of the Executive Board of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE). His own research lies at the intersection of immunology, genomics, and computer science. Before joining the Executive Board, he was Director of Systems Medicine at DZNE. He previously conducted research at the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne, Harvard University’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the University of Freiburg.
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