Research Center

One Health Ruhr - From Molecules to Systems

The Research Center One Health Ruhr deals with the fundamental mechanisms of health and illness – from the molecular level to the higher-level system. Leading researchers from molecular biology and water research, molecular cancer research and neuroscience collaborate in an interdisciplinary manner here. The researchers’ mission is to develop a landmark project on the topic of health and its significance for humans and the environment as well as the interconnectedness of all three that can serve as an example internationally.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Schadendorf, Director

Portrait of Prof Dr Dirk Schadendorf from Essen University Hospital.

“We live in an era of global change. Since the dawn of the Anthropocene, our planet has been evolving at an unprecedented pace on all biological scales – from molecules to humans to ecosystems – raising fundamental questions about the future of our planet. The well-being of human society hinges directly on the quality and health of the environment in which we live.

This is why the Research Center One Health Ruhr – from Molecules to Systems is dedicated to studying the fundamental mechanisms of health and disease. In the process, the ecosystem serves as the context, so that the complex interdependence between environmental health and human health can be taken into account. One Health Ruhr addresses, for one thing, basic molecular and systemic mechanisms that maintain physical and mental functions. Furthermore, it focuses on disruptions within systems that produce deviations from the normal state and, as a result, cause diseases in the broadest sense.

Following this holistic approach, One Health Ruhr combines the central fields of molecular biology, water research, molecular cancer research as well as neuroscience in a multidisciplinary science hub where the boundaries of separate disciplines are overcome. The overall goals pursued by One Health Ruhr do not only reflect current international scientific challenges, but, first and foremost, represent the exceptional strengths of the UA Ruhr science landscape.”

Focus and Interdisciplinarity

A scientist pushes samples into a modern sampling robot in the laboratory, wearing a lab coat and gloves.

The Research Center focuses on molecular biology and water research, molecular cancer research and neuroscience . Various disciplines of the life sciences work together on an interdisciplinary basis: Biology, chemistry, medicine, neuroscience, psychology and environmental sciences.

Infrastructure

The Research Center One Health - from Molecules to Systems has access to laboratories with special equipment in two research buildings and three additional new buildings:

Planning sketch of the THINK research building at the Ruhr University Bochum.

Research building THINK

Glowing ‘AI’ lettering on a shimmering blue glass wall and a hand with white lab gloves trying to touch the lettering.

Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (IKIM)

Frontal view of the MAGNETOM-Terra 7 Tesla MRI system at the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The MRI couch is extended in front of the scanner.

Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ELH)

National Center for Tumor Diseases West

Future Water Campus (planed)

Joint Projects

Numerous Collaborative Research Centers and Transregios are evidence of successful joint research:

Non-university Partners and Transfer Institutions

The Research Center One Health Ruhr - from Molecules to Systems cooperates closely with the MPI in Dortmund and transfer platforms in the neighboring technology park.

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology Drug Discovery Hub Dortmund BioMedicalCenter Dortmund