The Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit is an alliance between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Medical Faculties of the University of Heidelberg. Its primary aim is to uncover the molecular basis of disease and to speed the transformation of biomedical discoveries into personalized medicine strategies.
Founded in 2002, the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU) comprises nine inter-disciplinary research teams. It is co-directed by Prof. Carsten Müller-Tidow from the Department of Internal Medicine V Hematology, Oncology and Rheumatology at the University of Heidelberg and Dr. Wolfgang Huber (scientist) from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and is housed in the Otto-Meyerhof-Research Center on the Medical Campus of the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Research themes
Research themes place emphasis on common diseases as well as on rare diseases with a particular medical need.
In 2025 more than 120 international scientists work on the following nine research themes:
- âÂÂChronic Pain and Homeostasisâ headed by Rohini Kuner, Robert Prevedel and Jan Siemens.
- âÂÂECM Brainâ headed by Alba Diz-Muñoz and Michael Platten
- âÂÂHeart Development and Diseasesâ headed by Eileen Furlong and Johannes Backs.
- âÂÂIron homeostasis in health and diseaseâ headed by Martina Muckenthaler and Matthias Hentze.
- âÂÂMicrobiota Drug Metabolism and Cancer Therapyâ headed by Matthias Ebert, Tianzuo Zhan and Michael Zimmermann.
- âÂÂMolecular Pediatric Oncologyâ headed by Jan Korbel and Andreas Kulozik.
- âÂÂStem CellâÂÂNiche Networks in Ageing and Diseaseâ headed by Caroline Pabst, Judith Zaugg and Carsten MüllerâÂÂTidow.
- âÂÂSystems Medicine of Cancer Therapiesâ headed by Sascha Dietrich, Wolfgang Huber (scientist) and Junyan Lu.
- âÂÂTranslational RNA Biologyâ headed by Andreas Kulozik and Matthias Hentze.
Selected recent publications
References
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory Press Release on the establishment of the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit, 25.01.2002: https://web.archive.org/web/20110929214603/http://www.embl.de/mmpu/mmpu/history/hist_jan02_pdf.pdf
External links