History

In January 2002, the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) establish the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit, a novel partnership in which a research team is jointly headed by cooperating principal investigators (PIs) from the EMBL and the Medical Faculty and composed of an international team of molecular research-oriented MDs, PhDs, PhD-students and technicians of both institutions. 

The interdisciplinary cooperation combines the respective strength in medical science and know how, access to patients, and molecular life sciences know how to undertake basic disease-related research for the elucidation of biological mechanisms of diseases. 

The first group is that of the founders of the MMPU, Andreas Kulozik from the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg and Matthias Hentze from EMBL. They had previously collaborated successfully on RNA metabolism in blood diseases (link) for many years so that the idea of pursuing basic research related to medicine and vice versa inspires them to this pilot project with the philosophy: From bench to bedsite – and back. 

In 2004 of the MMPU is reviewed by an external panel of international experts and is considered to be 'first rate, extremely impressive and clearly internationally competitive’. The success of this first MMPU group motivates an expansion of the MMPU to further strengthen the link between basic and translationel research in molecular medicine. 

In 2006 the MMPU is joined by three new groups: Marcus Mall and Carsten Schultz studying cystic fibrosis, Martina Muckenthaler and Matthias Hentze studying iron overload and deficiency diseases and Magnus von Knebel-Doeberitz and Peer Bork looking at the identification of cancer markers. 

In 2007 a fifth group joins the MMPU: Heiko Runz and Rainer Pepperkok, studying the mechanisms of cellular cholesterol regulation. Andreas Kulozik and Matthias Hentze receive the Manfred Lautenschläger Research Prize of Heidelberg University for their successful work on diseases of RNA metabolism and for establishing the MMPU as a paradigm for the cooperation between clinical medicine and basic science. 

In 2011 the MMPU moves into common space provided by the University of Heidelberg, the Otto-Meyerhof-Zentrum (OMZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 350. Three further groups join the MMPU: Anne-Claude Gavin and Anthony Ho study early warning signals of aging, John Briggs and Hans-Georg Kräusslich look how to interfere with the assembly and maturation of infectious HIV-1, and Paul Heppenstall and Rohini Kuner search for molecular mediators of chronic pain. 

Today, more than 80 international researchers, physicians and technicians form six different University institutes and four different EMBL Units work in eight groups on important molecular medicine topics, usually focussing on common diseases.

Most research activities are financed by grant support from several research agencies. 

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