Now the time had come: project start for the winners of this year's DZG-overarching research projects in Dresden. The winners were honored at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Dresden by Prof. Gerd Kempermann and Prof. Michele Solimena.

In addition to the annual joint symposium, the 2023 start-up grants for cross-DZG projects also proved very popular. The aim of this funding is to enable new translational activities between the DZGs in Dresden that arise at the thematic interfaces of the centers.

This year, three project teams were awarded 10,000 euros of start-up funding:

• Franziska Baenke (DKTK), Annette Garbe (DZD) and Mike Karl (DZNE) with their project "Epigenetic mechanisms and therapeutic targets in human disease models".
• Rebecca Rothe (DKTK) and Anne Eugster (DZD) with their project "Role of dendritic cells in type I IFN-induced autoimmune diseases"

Diabetes, cancer and dementia: as different as these diseases may appear, there are often crosslinks that are relevant for the development of therapeutic approaches and investigative methods. The active networking of different DZGs thus reflects a unique opportunity to develop completely new and innovative research approaches. Dresden is a pioneer in this respect, as the three DZGs based in Dresden, the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden (PLID) of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and the aforementioned DZNE, have already been closely networked for several years.

F.l.t.r.: Prof. Gerd Kempermann, Dr. Anne Eugster, Dr. Rebecca Rothe, Dr. Franziska Baenke, Dr. Annette Garbe, Dr. Mareike Albert, Prof. Mike Karl, Prof. Michele Solimena. © Frank Möller / PLID