Prof. Dr. med. H. Lanfermann / Clinical Department of Neurology / MHH

Foreword to the Research Report 2007

Dear readers of our research report,

Hannover Medical School (MHH) is pleased to provide you with an overview of the research content and achievements of our Departments on the following pages.

The past year was marked by the MHH's entry into a new dimension of research activities.

The Cluster for Regenerative Medicine (REBIRTH) and the Graduate School Hannover Biomedical Research School (HBRS), both funded by the German Research Foundation's (DFG) Excellence Program, completed their first year of life. These were joined by a new Collaborative Research Center (SFB) on Innovative Transplants (SFB738), the SFB-Transregio 37 on Micro- and Nanosystems in Medicine as well as the Cytokine SFB (SFB566), which was extended into its final funding period and comprehensively updated in terms of content, and - last but not least - our successful application for the establishment of an Integrated Research and Treatment Center for Transplantation Medicine (IFB-Tx) by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

These highlights were strongly underpinned by numerous remarkable successes in other, longer-standing programs and individual grants from the DFG, the BMBF, the private foundations and industrial partners that are so important for our scientific landscape.

We would like to thank them all and, of course, the taxpayers of the state of Lower Saxony. We would also like to thank the numerous, often anonymous, reviewers of our project proposals and publications, who provide us with great services in the quality assurance of our research achievements.

Without the support of our sponsors and reviewers, we would not be able to prepare the ground for what so unmistakably characterizes our university: the exciting synthesis of innovative research with the best possible patient care and problem-oriented training and teaching. The MHH is thus facing up to the international competition for the best minds and ideas in order to advance research for people step by step. Speaking of brains and ideas: on the front page you will find a neuroradiological illustration of important nerve pathways, which were certainly also in full action for all those involved in the research report.

Prof. Dr. Dieter Bitter-Suermann - President

Prof. Dr. Dr. Christopher Baum - Dean of Research

Hanover, July 2008