The complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors of disease and lifestyle are central to individual disease progression. The exploration of these connections is the common research topic of the diagnostic and research institutes of the center, which investigate mechanisms of disease on the level of the genome, the transcriptome, the metabolome and their morphological manifestation. One special research topic is the microbiome, which is essential to how we metabolize food and how the immune system is activated. The special research topic liquid biopsy (the analysis of biomarkers circulating in the blood and other body fluids) opens up new diagnostic possibilities such as early detection and monitoring of cancer or permits insight into physiological processes such as aging. In another special research topic, high-risk pathogens are examined in the center’s two BSL-3 labs.
