(stz) Success for the Hannover Medical School (MHH): The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research awarded the MHH up to 50 million Euros to develop an Integrated Research and Treatment Center for Transplantation (IFB-Tx).  The MHH was one of 43 Medical Schools in Germany to apply for this award.  “With this award, the MHH is highlighting its leading role well beyond German borders in the field of transplant medicine”, said Professor Dieter Bitter-Suermann, MD, President of the MHH. The MHH owes this milestone to the already existing excellent achievements in research and patient care. “Transplant medicine, with its adjacent fields of infectious disease, immunology and stem-cell research, is the main emphasis of our medical school, with 23 clinics and institutes contributing to its advancement”, stressed Professor Bitter-Suermann. “The success in the Excellence initiative to Regenerative Medicine in the last year and the continued current success demonstrate that we have taken the right path.”

Last year, 486 solid organs were transplanted earning the MHH the top position nationwide. Worldwide, the MHH has the top position for lung transplantations.  In detail, this past year 200 kidneys, 151 livers, 101 lungs and 34 hearts were transplanted. In addition, 130 bone-marrow and blood stem-cell transplantations are performed annually. The MHH continues to do pioneering work in the field of transplant medicine and has been equipped with a dedicated research area entitled “Optimization of conventional and innovative transplants” since June this year.

On the basis of the many organ and cell transplantations being performed at the MHH, it will become possible with the IFB-Tx to examine important questions in large clinical studies, as well as to set international standards and to introduce landmark changes in clinical practise,” emphasized Professor Hermann Haller, MD, Director of the MHH Clinic for Kidney and High Pressure Diseases and Representative for the IFB-Tx,. “It is our aim to gather the transplantation knowledge, which has grown over the past 40 years at the MHH, in this Center for Transplant Medicine.”

The program of the “Integrated Research and Treatment Centers” has been established by the  German Federal government in order to strengthen clinical research in Germany, as well as to encourage the younger generation of scientists. “The IFB-Tx offers new career opportunities to scientific assistants from early independent studies up to professorships at the MHH with the establishment of an advanced and structured training program,” stated Prof. Hermann Haller, MD.  This program will be accomplished through a 25 million Euro subsidy, 5 million Euro per year for 5 years, from the German Federal Ministry.  Following the initial 5 years, a second 25 million Euro subsidy is possible.