Press release: DFG extends funding for two of Göttingen’s Collaborative Research Centres

Nr. 283/2014 - 21.11.2014

Research into physics of biological matter and mechanisms of sensory processing continues

(pug/umg) The German Research Foundation (DFG) has extended funding for two current Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) at the University of Göttingen and the University Medical Center Göttingen – each for another four years. Starting 1 January 2015, the Collaborative Research Centre for "Collective behavior of soft and biological matter" at the Faculty of Physics will be receiving funds totalling 7.9 million euros; also starting 1 January 2015, 9 million euros will similarly go to fund the CRC "Cellular mechanisms of sensory processing" at the University Medical Center Göttingen.

CRC 937 "Collective behavior of soft and biological matter" focuses on the interface between physics, chemistry and biology. Participants are the faculties for Physics and for Chemistry at Göttingen University, the University Medical Center Göttingen and Göttingen's Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation. The CRC's objective is to study the self-organisation, cooperativity and non-linear dynamics of both non-living soft condensed as well as of biological matter. For this purpose, concepts of statistical physics of non-equilibrium phenomena are being developed to quantitatively elucidate complex dynamic functions like the growth of tissue in living systems. The CRC’s spokesperson is Professor Christoph Schmidt, from Göttingen University’s III. Physical Institute. For more information, go to www.uni-goettingen.de/en/198253.html.

CRC 889 "Cellular mechanisms of sensory processing" is nested in the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG). Neuroscientists from four UMG facilities, from the European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen (ENI-G), the University of Göttingen's Faculty of Biology and Psychology, the Göttingen Max Planck Institutes for Biophysical Chemistry, Dynamics and Self-Organisation and for Experimental Medicine as well as the German Primate Centre are all involved. They follow a multidisciplinary and integrative approach to study the fundamental and complex mechanisms employed in the sensory processing of images, tones, smells or the likes. The CRC's spokesperson is Professor Tobias Moser, MD, Head of the InnerEarLab, Department of Otolaryngology, University Medical Center Göttingen. For more information about the CRC on web, go to http://sfb889.uni-goettingen.de/index.html#deu.

Contact addresses:
Professor Christoph Schmidt, DSc
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
III. Physical Institute – Oscillation Physics
Phone +49 (0)551 39-7740
E-mail: christoph.schmidt@phys.uni-goettingen.de

Professor Tobias Moser, MD
University Medical Center Göttingen
Department of Otolaryngology
Phone +49 (0)551 39-8968
E-mail: tmoser@gwdg.de