Prof. Dr. Thomas Illig, Head of the Hannover Unified Biobank (HUB), recently announced that he would like to devote himself exclusively to the increased challenges in the biobank in the future and is therefore stepping down as Deputy Head of the Institute for Human Genetics. All employees of the institute and the President of the MHH were informed about this change. We thank him very much for his great support and commitment!

As successor Prof. Schlegelberger's announced PD Dr. Anke Bergmann to take up the position. She will take up the the position as Deputy Director of the Institute on September 1st, 2021. As Deputy Director, Anke Bergmann is responsible for coordinating research at the institute.

We are pleased that she accepts this new challenge and looking forward to a successful collaboration!

 

Excerpt of press release:

The OnkoRisk NET project aims to create a cooperation network of practising oncologists and specialists in human genetics in the federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony. With structured treatment paths, support in establishing indications and interpreting findings, and telemedical genetic counselling, access to genetic counselling, diagnostics and risk-adapted prevention for genetic tumour risk syndromes is to be secured in structurally weak regions.

"Hardly any other subject is currently experiencing such a rapid increase in technology, knowledge and importance as is the case in human genetics. This makes it all the more important to develop care concepts such as OnkoRiskNET that keep pace with this development and ensure comprehensive human genetics care in the future," says Professor Schlegelberger. The project will start in July 2021 and will be supported over four years with a total of around 2.5 million euros from the innovation fund of the Federal Joint Committee. In addition to the MHH Institute of Human Genetics, project participants include the Institute of Medical Genetics at the University Hospital Dresden, the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, the Lower Saxony and Saxony regional associations of the Professional Association of Haematologists and Oncologists and the AOK Lower Saxony.

Read the full article here.

 

We cordially invite you to the 3rd Patient Day on November 30th, 2019, during which we would like to inform you about all important and new aspects of familial breast and ovarian cancer and possibly associated tumor diseases.

In addition to information on the genetic examination options currently available, a focus should be placed on modern drug and surgical treatment methods for cancer and the risk-adapted early diagnosis examinations available.

Since cancer can be better managed through psycho-oncological support and the support of patient organizations (e.g. the BRCA network), this complex of topics is also addressed.

You can access the flyer for the event via this link.

 

We look forward to your participation!

 

Prof. Dr. Thomas Illig, Scientific Director of the Hanover Unified Biobank (HUB) and Deputy Director of the Institute for Human Genetics at the Hannover Medical School (MHH), achieved second place in the laboratory journal ranking for the discipline of hormone and metabolic research.

Between 2008 and 2017 he published 366 articles, which were cited 39,945 times. The ranking of the laboratory journal (edition 09/2019) takes into account articles with at least one author with an address in the German-speaking area - preferably specialist journals on hormone and metabolism research or employees of institutes with this focus were included.

A large number of the mentioned publications on hormone and metabolism research have a special focus on the topics of nutrition, obesity, the body mass index and type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes in particular is of great importance in medical research because of its widespread population.

Thomas Illig studied and achieved his doctorate at the University of Regensburg in the Institute for Cell Biology. He then worked for five years as a PostDoc at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. 2001 Illig became group leader of the working group “Molecular Epidemiology” at the Institute for Epidemiology; In 2011 he took over the independent department for molecular epidemiology at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. Illig has been the scientific director of the Hannover Unified Biobank (HUB) at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) since 2012, and has been the deputy director of the institute and research coordinator at the Institute for Human Genetics at the MHH since 2016.

During his time at the Helmholtz Zentrum München in the epidemiology department, the researcher Thomas Illig was involved in the organization of large epidemiological studies (including KORA, Augsburg Diabetes Family Study, NaKo health study).

Prof. Illig is considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of molecular epidemiology with regard to the combination of different molecular data. Examples of this are the combination of data from genome-wide association studies (GWAs) with data from the areas of metabolomics, transcriptomics or epigenomics. The combination of the data enables more comprehensive insights into the genesis of complex diseases as well as their prediction and therapy.

Prof. Illig is a member of various international consortia whose focus is primarily on cardio-metabolic diseases, but also includes other diseases and phenotypes.