The medical faculty of the University of Leipzig has one more institute: the Institute for Drug Development was founded at the beginning of the new year. It is located in the Medical Research Center, Liebigstraße 19, and is intended to bring basic research and clinical application in the field of new active substances in medicine closer together.
For this purpose, computer-aided methods and experimental studies are closely linked. In terms of teaching, the new institute will further develop pharmacy training at the medical faculty.
The director of the new facility is Alexander von Humboldt Professor Prof. Dr. Jens Meier, who is now starting his research and teaching activities at the University of Leipzig. The 45-year-old is one of the world's most renowned researchers in the field of computer-aided drug development. Using digital simulations and artificial intelligence, he models proteins that form attractive starting points for a large number of drugs. At five million euros, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is Germany's most valuable research award. Prof. Dr. Jens Meiler was awarded it last year. “I am happy to finally be able to get started. This year I would like to put together a powerful team of young scientists in order to be able to tackle the first projects," says Meiler.
Further information: Press and Public Relations of the Medical Faculty, +49 341 97-15300, email
dr Catherine Werneburg
Source: Message from the University of Leipzig on January 21, 2020
Our Leipzig Medical Biobank receives 2020 million euros for investments from the immediate program "Start 1,2" of the Free State. Saxony's Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow informed about this today. "I am pleased that with these additional funds the technical infrastructure of the Leipzig Medical Biobank - which has been a central infrastructure of the LIFE Research Center for Civilization Diseases at the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig since 2010 as part of Saxony's State Excellence Initiative - can be modernized and the storage capacity expanded." , according to Gemkow.
In people with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a mostly benign form of senile leukemia, the body produces too few functional blood cells. They suffer from anemia, also known as "anaemia", which can be a precursor to acute leukemia. So far, there have been hardly any treatment options for patients other than regular blood transfusions. The drug luspatercept, which acts like a "vacuum cleaner" in a figurative sense, was able to significantly improve the blood values of those affected in a study by the German MDS study group. The worldwide follow-up study led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Platzbecker has confirmed the effectiveness of the preparation. It was recently published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine