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Over the last decades, biology has developed from a mainly descriptive to a more analytical science. New connections with physics, chemistry, mathematics, and medicine have been forged, and theoretical biology has become a discipline in its own right. The aim of the Institute for Theoretical Biology is to advance research and education of theoretical concepts in biology.

The Institute for Theoretical Biology is part of the Department of Biology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and also part of Berlin's medical school Charité. It provides an interdisciplinary environment currently housing ten research groups working on a broad range of topics, such as the dynamics of molecular networks within cells, neuroscience, the evolution of organisms, and spreading of diseases.

The Institute for Theoretical Biology is located in the Center of the City in two buildings that are in close proximity to each other.

  • ITB meeting, Tuesday

24 May 2023 - Published online: Gap junctions desynchronize a neural circuit to stabilize insect flight - Hürkey S*, Niemeyer N*, Schleimer J-H, Ryglewski S, Schreiber S#, Duch C# (2023): Gap junctions desynchronize a neural circuit to stabilize insect flight. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06099-0 - *Equal contribution. #Shared corresponding authors -

2023-02-12 X-Research Group - Digital twins for the treatment of hypertension <https://livermetabolism.com/teaching/> M. König receives funding of the Berlin University Alliance and the DFG for the X-Student Research Group: Digital twins for the treatment of hypertension Understanding a drugs pharmacokinetics - how it is absorbed, distributed, metabolised and excreted by the body - and its pharmacodynamics - how it affects the body - is a key challenge in treating people. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and diuretics are two classes of drugs used to treat high blood pressure. Both are among the most commonly prescribed drugs due to the high prevalence of hypertension in an ageing society. In this X-student research group physiologically based pharmacokinetic models of the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide and the ACE inhibitor lisinopril will be developed. With the X-Student Research Groups <https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/commitments/teaching-learning/sturop/research-groups/index.html>, the Berlin University Alliance supports research teams consisting of young researchers and students. The goal is to involve students in current research projects of the alliance partners and to enable them to participate in (cutting-edge) research already during their studies. Funded under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder by the Berlin University Alliance <https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/>.

2023-02-01 ATLAS - AI and Simulation for Tumor Liver ASsessment <https://www.simtech.uni-stuttgart.de/press/SimTech-collaborates-across-disciplines-in-joint-ATLAS-project/> *The BMBF is funding the joint project ATLAS in the “Computational Life Sciences - AI Methods for Systems Medicine” of M. König. Liver cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death. Diagnosis and treatment are time-critical and require highly patient-specific diagnostic and treatment pathways. Medical decision-making is based on a variety of interdependent factors related to different medical disciplines, past experience and clinical guidelines. Taking into account all decision factors in combination with the possible therapeutic approaches is a major challenge for physicians and often cannot be solved optimally even in an interdisciplinary tumor board. In this project, we are developing ATLAS, a decision support tool that will significantly assist clinicians in meeting this challenge. Based on AI methods, ATLAS processes all relevant patient data from databases, systems medicine and continuum biomechanical in silico prognosis models as well as individual patient data. The tool is being developed in a co-design approach by experts in surgical oncology, mathematical modeling and machine learning. The selected technologies will integrate automated understanding of a highly complex patient situation through simulation of liver functions with expert knowledge and ontology-driven learning with knowledge graphs from retrospective liver tumor cases. ATLAS will be based on a detailed historical data cohort of more than 6,000 patients with liver tumors and will be evaluated on case studies at the University Hospital of Jena. The integration of medical expert knowledge, mathematical modeling and artificial intelligence represents a highly original and promising approach for high-quality diagnosis and treatment of liver tumors, resulting in patient-specific improvement of prognosis. The scientific knowledge gained from these projects will provide opportunities for transfer to malignancies in other organs, such as the lung, kidney or brain. The development of tools and demonstrators will provide sustainable exploitation pathways for future commercial applications. https://www.simtech.uni-stuttgart.de/press/SimTech-collaborates-across-disciplines-in-joint-ATLAS-project/

The 3-year research project “Delineating and testing a microcircuit model of parahippocampal phase precession” is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) within the Priority Program 1665 (Schwerpunktprogramm) “Resolving and manipulating neuronal networks in the mammalian brain – from correlative to causal analysis”. The project will start in November 2016. Collaborators are Prof. Michael Brecht (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dietmar Schmitz (Charité), and Prof. Richard Kempter (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). Further details can be found at http://www.spp1665.de/projects_2_delineating.html

The 3-year research project “Field potentials in the auditory system” is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). This “US-American - German Collaboration in Computational Neuroscience” started in April 2016. Collaborators are Prof. Catherine E. Carr (University of Maryland), Prof. Christine Köppl (Universität Oldenburg), and Prof. Richard Kempter (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). Further details can be found at https://fis.hu-berlin.de/converis/publicweb/Project/14607?share=false&cntpers=false&reqstfulltxt=false&reports=false&lang=1

Prof Werner Ebeling Honorary Colloquium “Irreversible Processes and Selforganization” on occasion of his 80th birthday taking place at 21st of October, 2016 at 2pm in the Institute of Theoretical Biology, house 04 of “Campus Nord” of Humboldt University at Berlin

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Institute for Theoretical Biology
Philippstr. 13, Haus 4
10115 Berlin

Elvira Lauterbach
+49 30 2093-98400
e.lauterbach [at] biologie.hu-berlin.de

Karin Winklhöfer
+49 30 2093-9118
k.winklhoefer [at] biologie.hu-berlin.de

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