GSC 1006:  Graduate School of Quantitative Biosciences Munich (QBM)

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 194407719

As a result of the genomic revolution and a wealth of technological developments, the molecular biosciences are undergoing a major paradigm shift - away from analysing individual genes and proteins to studying large molecular machines and cellular pathways, with the ultimate goal of understanding biological systems in their entirety. The emerging study of complex bio-molecular systems poses major methodological and conceptual challenges; qualitative data and intuition are no longer sufficient and need to be complemented by quantitative data and mathematical modelling. As a result, systems-oriented biological research is inherently an interdisciplinary undertaking, involving biochemistry, molecular and organismal genetics, biophysics, biostatistics, bioinformatics and theoretical physics. The mission of the Graduate School of Quantitative Biosciences Munich (QBM) is to provide young scientists with the skills and resources to excel in this new multi-disciplinary environment. The Graduate School seeks to raise a cohort of young scientists who are well versed in multiple approaches and styles of thought and who are comfortable communicating across traditional boundaries, especially across the divide between experiment and quantitative theory. To this end, the school provides an international structured PhD programme consisting of three components: (1) an interdisciplinary research project jointly supervised by two principal investigators from different fields, (2) a substantial programme of formal course work, centred around an interdisciplinary core course that covers key problems in bioscience from multiple perspectives, and (3) activities to enhance students’ communication skills and their ability to succeed in science as a competitive profession. Beyond this educational mission, the Graduate School fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between the participating principal investigators and groups, thereby directly advancing the aims of quantitative and systems-oriented bioscience. The Graduate School is a joint initiative by leading scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich as well as from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the Helmholtz Zentrum München.

• DFG Programme: Graduate Schools
• Applicant Institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt; Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie (MPIB)
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Baumeister; Professor Dr. Peter Burkhard Becker; Professor Dr. Roland Beckmann; Professor Dr. Dieter Braun; Professor Dr. Thomas Brocker; Professorin Dr. Elena Conti; Professor Dr. Patrick Cramer; Professor Dr. Wolfgang-M. Franz; Professor Dr. Hermann E. Gaub; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Gaul (†); Professor Dr. Ulrich Gerland; Professor Dr. Franz-Ulrich Hartl; Professor Dr. Karl-Peter Hopfner; Dr. Wolfgang Huber; Professor Dr. Axel Imhof; Professor Dr. Christoph Klein; Professor Dr. Joachim Rädler; Professorin Dr. Petra Schwille; Dr. Johannes Söding; Professor Dr. Fabian Theis; Professor Dr. Eckhard Wolf; Professor Dr. Ralf Zimmer
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Erwin Frey