CCRI – CeMM Collaboration Agreement
(Vienna, 22.01.2024) CCRI Directors Kaan Boztug and Jörg Bürger, and CeMM Directors Giulio Superti-Furga and Anita Ender have signed a partnership agreement which further strengthens scientific collaborations and training aspects.
CeMM’s research is strongly oriented towards medical needs and integrates research on fundamental biological processes with clinical expertise to gain new insights into human pathophysiology and develop innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. The research focus is on cancer, inflammation, infection, metabolism and aging. The St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI) strives to improve treatment for children and adolescents with cancer by bringing together translational and clinical research with systematic exploration of basic disease mechanisms. As both parties are dedicated to support biomedical research and training, CeMM and CCRI agreed to enter into a collaboration agreement.
Several common projects of strategic importance have already been established between CeMM and CCRI over the past years. LBI-RUD, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, enabled translational research activities over 7 years and maximized synergies. Thanks to the support of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and the partner institutes, LBG, CCRI, CeMM and the Medical University of Vienna, LBI-RUD was relevant to affected patients and also provided unique and novel insights into human biology far beyond the specific disease. LBI-RUD also helped raise awareness for rare diseases. A total number of up to 400,000 people in Austria may be affected by a rare disease, often with chronic, debilitating, and life-threatening consequences, and the CCRI-CeMM collaborations are important to reaching the goals of precise and personalized medicine.
A highly productive partnership has been established over the years. Another centerpiece of the CeMM-CCRI collaboration is the joint Adjunct PI Program, to broaden scientific competence and to complement the current Faculty in institute-wide matters. Kaan Boztug, Davide Seruggia and Florian Grebien are adjunct members of the CeMM Faculty and participate to the PhD Program and the Pre-ERC PostDoc Program.
CeMM and CCRI are looking forward to continuing and further extending this highly successful relationship with the clear goal of improving medical practice for the benefit of patients and for training researchers in molecular medicine.
