The Research Environment

The Elite Master’s Program “Human Biology – Principles of Health and Disease” is characterized by excellent facilities for contemporary research in Munich and just outside of Munich at the modern HighTechCampus in Martinsried, where the main part of the program will be held. At the HighTechCampus, next to the Faculty of Biology (Biocenter) and the Faculty of Medicine (Biomedical Center and the University Hospital), further high profile institutions are situated. These are the Max-Planck-Institutes of Biochemistry and Neurobiology, the HelmholtzZentrum Munich (Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells, Comprehensive Pneumology Center), the Gen Center and the Research Center for Molecular Biosystems, the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research and the Institute for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (IBE). In parallel, the knowledge of these institutes acquires feeds into real-world biotechnological and medical applications, for example through start-up companies also based at the HighTechCampus. For example the „Fördergesellschaft IZB mbH“, is home to over 60 biotech companies with over 650 employees.

Further significant institutes of the Faculty of Medicine -- which are also involved in the Elite Master’s Program -- are situated at the Medical Campus in downtown Munich. They include: The Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), the Max von Pettekofer Institute and the Institute of Pathology and the Walther-Straub-Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Another unique feature of Munich is that it is the home of all six types of German Centers for Health Research established by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Their translational research topics focus on a variety of diseases, including cancer and diabetes as well as cardiovascular, lung, infectious and neurodegenerative disorders. The Faculty of Medicine is involved in the research of all these centers. All five topics of the current Elite Master’s Program are represented within the focus areas of the Centers for Health Research.
The existing cooperative network with all these institutions provides our students with a unique, rich and modern research environment.