Top metabolic research in Graz – steiermark.ORF.at

When fully expanded, the Curie Institute for Molecular and Computational Metabolism will house 60 to 100 researchers in up to a dozen research teams and other staff. €9.3 million will be invested in the first three years and €23 million during the first five years; The 20 million will come from the OeAW, the organization’s president, Heinz Wassmann, said Monday when the founding agreement was signed.

“A well-established theme among the population”

The planned institute is dedicated to research into human metabolism (metabolism) and its diseases. “In metabolic research, we are not addressing a marginal topic, but rather a well-established topic in the midst of the population and affecting them,” Vasman emphasized. Metabolic disorders are causally associated with the development of diabetes and obesity, but they are also associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diseases of the immune system.

“Metabolic research in Graz is being expanded through the Curie Institute. Since countless disease developments can be traced back to metabolic diseases, this is an important research area whose findings can be used for the benefit of people,” emphasized Science Minister Martin Polachik (ÖVP). In addition, there must be a close intertwining of experimental and numerical biology as well as mathematical modelling.

The institute aims to attract young senior researchers and give them the opportunity to devote themselves to biomedical research at the highest scientific level in the fields of computer science, mathematics, biology, chemistry, medicine, biomedical engineering and engineering sciences and to acquire more scientific qualifications.

Third OeAW Institute in Styria

The Institute for Metabolism Research is named after the Austrian-American biochemist Gerti and Karl Curie couple, who discovered, among other things, glycogen metabolism, and who worked with Nobel Prize winner Otto Loewe in Graz before emigrating to the United States. Plus the Aerospace Institute on Graz Street. Peter and the Erich Schmid Institute for Materials Science in Leoben, the third OeAW institute in Styria.

The driving force behind this initiative is biochemist and fat metabolism expert Rudolf Zechner. The responsibility for the operational management of the Curie Institute lies with ÖAW as the sponsor, and the research profile of the Institute should be based, among other things, on the priorities of the participating universities and will be coordinated with them. In any case, the scientific focus will be in the multidisciplinary environment of BioTechMed.

Find managers and search groups first

As a next step, a search committee will be created to search for a director of the institute, and the first research groups will also be created. On Monday, the institute said that the institute will be located near the University of Graz, and that voting on the site is nearing completion. Barbara Ebbinger-Medel, Minister of Science, confirmed that the state of Styria would also contribute to infrastructure.