Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide – and a daily threat to millions of people. With the curATime future cluster, TRON gGmbH, the Medical Centre of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) are joining forces with strong partners from the Rhine-Main-Palatinate region to pool their expertise and bring together research excellence and technological innovation. The aim is to bring new treatment approaches for cardiovascular diseases into application more quickly and to strengthen the region as a leading location for biomedical innovations.
"I am delighted with the federal government's decision to include curATime in a second funding phase. This success is a strong signal of the excellence of health research in Rhineland-Palatinate and proof of the innovative power of our scientific landscape and university medicine. Cardiovascular diseases are among the greatest health challenges of our time. The fact that groundbreaking solutions are being developed here in Mainz – through the impressive collaboration between TRON, the University Medical Centre and DFKI – is of enormous importance for patients, for our society and for Rhineland-Palatinate as a research location as a whole," said Clemens Hoch, Minister of Science and Health.
In the upcoming three-year funding phase, curATime will continue to expand its powerful innovation ecosystem for cardiovascular research in Rhineland-Palatinate. With the help of artificial intelligence and innovative RNA therapies, concrete approaches for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases will be developed.
‘Individualised medicine and personalised therapy are important topics for the future, and the curATime cluster is developing state-of-the-art approaches in this field. I congratulate everyone involved on the continued funding of this innovative project by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research,’ emphasises Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch, President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. ‘This funding is a great endorsement of the capabilities of the life sciences in Mainz and in Rhineland-Palatinate in general. The curATime cluster of the future benefits from the close integration of basic research and clinical-therapeutic application, which has been specifically and sustainably promoted in recent decades, particularly in the field of biotechnology.’
Prof. Dr. Johnny Kim, curATime cluster spokesperson and director of the Department of Cardiovascular Therapeutics at TRON, emphasises: 'The positive results from the first funding phase show how relevant our approach is to combining RNA innovations with artificial intelligence in order to better understand and treat cardiovascular diseases. The close cooperation between clinics, science and industry is particularly important to me – this is how we create real added value. With curATime, we want to break down old structures and establish a culture of value creation. This will primarily benefit patients through faster, innovative solutions. At the same time, we are strengthening the Rhine-Main-Palatinate region as a vibrant innovation ecosystem and contributing to bringing biomedical developments in Germany into application more quickly.'
The BMFTR's funding decision is a decisive step for curATime in breaking new ground in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases together with its partners and advancing the translation of innovative research into clinical application.
The Future Clusters Initiative (Clusters4Future) is a funding measure launched by the BMFTR in 2019 to strengthen knowledge and technology transfer. The regional approach to cluster funding aims to create entirely new future clusters and to exploit and further develop the innovative potential of a region. The aim is to bring technological and social innovations into people's everyday lives more quickly. At the same time, the future clusters are intended to help promote Germany as a location for research and development both nationally and internationally.
curATime is one of the future clusters from the second round of the competition that have now been selected for a second implementation phase.
Further information online:
www.curATime.org
www.Clusters4Future.de
Source: Press release Mainz University Medical Centre
