Meeting the Challenges of Chronic Age-Related Diseases in Rural Areas

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Agnes Flöel
• Subject Area: Biogerontology and Geriatric Medicine ; Biochemistry ; Hematology, Oncology ; Cardiology, Angiology ; Clinical Neurology; Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology ; Medical Informatics and Medical Bioinformatics ; Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493623784

The University Medicine Greifswald (UMG) has implemented a state-of-the-art Clinician Scientist program (CSP) that forms an essential building block for strengthening its profile as a center for translational research oriented towards the needs of patient care in rural areas in the future. In this second funding period, partners from the clinical departments of Cardiovascular Medicine, Neurology, and Oncology have joined forces with the Institutes of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics and Community Medicine to further refine the CSP that addresses common, age-related diseases in both research and patient care. We draw on extensive ongoing work on proteostasis, data mining methods, clinical trials and health services research, to offer internationally competitive research training and clinical skills to young Clinician Scientist (CS) fellows. In their scientific rotation, the CS fellows acquire knowledge in applying cutting-edge scientific laboratory techniques and clinical trial methodology, as well as modern data mining and machine learning approaches to unravel mechanisms underlying cardiomyopathies, muscle wasting, frailty, dementia, delirium, and chronic myeloid neoplasms, and other age-related diseases to develop novel therapeutic approaches for these conditions. In their clinical work, the CS fellows enter a well-defined rotation scheme that trains them in interdisciplinary patient care for populations under study. The CSP is embedded into the overall research agenda of the UMG, as defined in the strategic agenda “UMG 2026”, which specifies a focus on four main areas (Community Medicine, Molecular Medicine, Individualized Medicine and Digital Health), all of which are integrated in the CSP, and the promotion of translational research and outreach into the rural community as constitutive elements for the profile of the UMG. In sum, all CSP projects qualify and train the fellows in clinical and patient-related aspects, and empower them for an internationally competitive scientific track. In addition, by ensuring regular cohorts of highly motivated young clinician scientists, the CSP sustainably boosts the UMG’s efforts to identify molecular and clinical signatures of chronic age-related diseases, to use machine learning to harness digital data from the clinical information system for data-driven health research, and to develop digital diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for use in the community. The CSP outlined here is sustainably anchored within the UMG, including an extensive accompanying seminar and workshop program, CS fellow positions, early-advanced CS fellow positions, Junior CS positions, as well as long-term target positions for Clinician Scientists.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Jens Fielitz; Professor Dr. Lars Kaderali; Professorin Dr. Elke Beate Krüger; Professor Dr. Adrian Schwarzer; Professorin Dr. Susanne Wurm