A milestone for research into the heart and brain: the new Heart & Brain Center Göttingen (HBCG) at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) combines a previously non-existent joint research infrastructure. Two of the UMG's key research areas, cardiovascular medicine and neurosciences, will be brought together in the new building in order to conduct comprehensive research into the complex interaction between the heart and brain. After the building was completed in spring last year, the research groups moved into the new research building with its state-of-the-art equipment. Now the HBCG was officially opened on Thursday, 22 August 2024, in the presence of around 130 guests, including Lower Saxony's Minister for Science and Culture, Falko Mohrs. The construction costs of around 38 million euros were borne by the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony.
Looking at the heart and brain together also promises to provide a great deal of new knowledge because both systems have fundamental molecular and functional similarities, but also communicate with each other. It is still unclear which mechanisms underlie these interactions. For example, we know from previous research that atrial fibrillation of the heart can often lead to a blood clot and thus to a stroke and cognitive impairment, or that stroke patients are more likely to have a heart attack. The reasons for this are still largely unknown. However, the clinical and social significance of these diseases is considerable, particularly in view of demographic trends.
A total of eleven research groups and five infrastructure groups work in the building. In addition to their own research work, the infrastructure groups support the other scientists at the HBCG with their expertise on the state-of-the-art equipment. All projects aim to find out more about the cross-organ causes and mechanisms of common diseases of the cardiovascular and nervous systems. One of the most important goals of the research projects is the translational approach: results from basic research should be transferred to clinical trials as quickly as possible and made available for the treatment of patients. Three specialist clinics and one institute of the UMG were involved in the founding of the HBCG: the Clinic for Cardiology and Pneumology, the Clinic for Neurology, the Clinic for Geriatrics and the Institute for Cognitive Neurology.
Prof. Dr Gerd Hasenfuß, former board member of the DZHK, spokesperson of the HBCG, Chairman of the Heart Research Center Göttingen, Chairman of the Heart Center and Director of the Clinic for Cardiology and Pneumology at the UMG, said: ‘We know that only through interdisciplinary research can many diseases of the heart and brain be understood, diagnosed and treated. With the Heart & Brain Centre, we are creating a unique research environment and ideal conditions for interdisciplinary collaboration. Only if we look at both organs together will we have a chance of gaining new insights and being able to offer our patients optimal individualised treatment in the future.’
Research concept for heart and brain research at the HBCG
The interaction of the cardiological and neuroscientific focal points is unique and innovative in Germany in order to understand disease mechanisms. Prevention and therapy methods can also be developed. In many cases, there is a close connection between cardiovascular, neurological and neuromuscular diseases. The HBCG combines the scientific, disease-oriented expertise in neuroscience, skeletal muscle research and cardiac medicine that has been established at the Göttingen Campus with methodological expertise in biology and molecular biosciences, imaging and (medical) informatics, physics and pharmacology. The HBCG is thus the first centre to carry out systematic experimental, theoretical and clinical investigations into factors for diseases of these three organ systems. Researchers from the UMG, the Georg August University, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation and the German Primate Center- Leibniz Institute for Primate Research are working together on an interdisciplinary basis.
The Research Training Group (RTG) 2824 ‘Heart and Brain Diseases: Integrative research across organ boundaries’ is also based at the HBCG with individual projects. It aims to expand the cross-organ approach through integrative cutting-edge research in the field of heart and brain diseases in combination with high-calibre training of doctoral students in the natural sciences and medicine.
This press release is an abridged version of the press release of the University Medical Center Göttingen. You can read it here (in German only).
