About IFB-Tx
The IFB-Tx at Hannover Medical School aims to overcome the current limitations of transplant medicine and offers good career opportunities for clinician scientist.
The focal points of clinical research in the IFB-Tx are
- Stem cell modification and Bridging
- Ischemia-reperfusion injury
- Immunology
- Chronic dysfunction
- Comorbidities and rehabilitation
Above and beyond these goals, we will develop new methodologies for stem cell harvesting and conditioning for improved tolerance, as well as optimised antitoumor and antileukemic potentials of these cells. The aim of this clinical research is to markedly improve total transplantation outcomes and thereby to break the visible stagnation and acceptance of current expectations.
IFB-Tx - Promoting excellence in patient-oriented research
The MHH has as core themes, transplantation medicine, stem cell therapy, artificial implants, tissue engineering and infection biology. In this framework, numerous patient cohorts have been recruited so that the opportunities for patient-oriented research are substantial. A prerequisite for patient-oriented research is an interdisciplinary approach. At the MHH, a close cooperation between surgical and medical specialties as well as laboratory sciences has been developed to assure this interdisciplinary cooperation. This cooperation also extends the scope of research questions that are addressed. The interdisciplinary cooperation extends not only to post-transplant care, but also to recipient and donor selection prior to transplantation.
To assist in this regard, the MHH closely cooperates with the Hannover Clinical Trial Center (HCTC). It was founded in 2005 and supplies the necessary expertise and infrastructure to facilitate the initiation and accrual of investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical studies and trials.
IFB-Tx - Educating tomorrow’s clinical scientists and fostering their career development
One major element in the IFB-Tx initiative at the MHH is to provide for a training program and career development structures for young scientists and clinician scientists. Patient-oriented clinical research and the training of appropriate clinical researchers to conduct such research has been a problematic area for years, not only in transplantation medicine but also in all aspects of clinical medicine. The factors contributing to this state of affairs are complex and multifactorial. They are inherent in not only the clinical specialty training programs and accompanying requirements (for board certification for clinical specialties), but also in the nature of patient-oriented clinical research (primarily drug studies) as conducted by average clinical departments. The aim of the IFB-Tx is to improve this situation.
We will develop a clinical training program that is coupled with long-term career perspectives for such clinical researchers. The IFB-Tx supports
- students within the StrucMed Programme to obtain their M.D.
- assistants (termed Assistenzärzte in the German system) by offering research rotations, postdoctoral fellowships and Start-Up projects
- senior fellows (termed Oberärzte in the German system) by financing full projects in order to built up and maintain their own research groups
- full professorships (W3) at our IFB-Tx Core Facilities
Future goals: IFB-Tx II
To continue our successful work concerning the building of a translational research programme in transplantation, the establishment of an attractive multi-disciplinary career programme for clinician scientist and the implementation of a sustained clinical research structure in transplantation medicine at Hannover Medical School (MHH) the IFB-Tx applied for a second funding period. The Renewal Proposal was handed in in July 2012. A possible funding would cover the time span from July 2013 to June 2018. This time shall be used to irreversibly implement and perpetuate the newly developed structures of the IFB-Tx into the MHH.
