13th DDc Lunch Retreat

Despite massive global efforts, there are only a handful of transformational new drugs launched each year. There is widespread agreement that our lack of understanding of the fundamental causes of disease is at the heart of the problem. This proposed excellence cluster aims to improve our understanding of human biology and disease by building on a fundamental discovery that was made 12 years ago in Dresden, namely that cells organize their biochemistry into biomolecular condensates. These condensates act as membraneless compartments enabling cells to carry out a multiplicity of essential functions. Intense research over the last decade has revealed the biophysical and biochemical principles underlying condensate formation. The idea that condensates can become dysregulated is now also altering the way we conceptualize human disease. Condensates have been implicated in many poorly understood human diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, neurodegeneration and viral infections. Thus, viewing human disease from a condensate perspective holds great promise to create breakthrough medicines that will operate through fundamentally different mechanisms.

Dresden is uniquely positioned to initiate a new cluster focused on the biomedicine of condensates. It has a history of ground-breaking research into condensates and is currently perceived as the world leader in this rapidly growing field. The clusters will bring together top scientists from the areas of biophysics, biochemistry, cell biology, neurodegeneration, cancer biology, immunology, metabolic disorders, computational biology, and AI. It will harness existing synergies at the university, medical campus and in the bio­technology sector with the ultimate goal to improve our understanding of human biology and disease and build platforms to identify new life-saving therapies.