"For this commitment, I thank you from the bottom of my heart"
Taking the lessons learned from the pandemic to accelerate health research of tomorrow: Federal Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach visited the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg on 30 June 2023. Lauterbach acknowledged the exceptional role of the research centre, its unique expertise and versatile application possibilities of accelerator-based X-ray light sources; also for health research - and for the future of Germany as a science and research base.
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"DESY in Hamburg is getting increasingly better. AI is used to study structures and processes in the cell in the electron accelerator, for example. Over the next few years, huge progress will be made in the fight against cancer and dementia."
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DESY researcher Johannes Hagemann shows DESY director Helmut Dosch, science senator Katharina Fegebank, Gesa Miehe-Nordmeyer from the Federal Chancellery and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach the experiments at the PETRA III beamline P06 (from left). Picture: © DESY, Georg Wendt
"The interdisciplinary research work at DESY is an outstanding example of cutting-edge research in Germany."
"The interdisciplinary research work at DESY is an outstanding example of cutting-edge research in Germany - and of how this research directly benefits people's health care," said Minister Lauterbach. "With the help of X-ray analytics, DESY made an enormously important contribution to the development of mRNA vaccines. In the future, the technologies used here may provide advances in research into Parkinson's-like diseases or for the further development of biodegradable implants. For this commitment, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
During a tour of DESY's large PETRA III experimental hall, the guests got an idea of DESY's research infrastructure. Members of the DESY Directorate presented the Minister and other guests from the Federal Chancellery with current experiments on a beamline as well as findings obtained in DESY's corona research for the development of a corona drug.
Dr. Theresia Staufer from the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Hamburg (right) explains her X-ray fluorescence research at the PETRA III accelerator to DESY Director Helmut Dosch, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, DESY Directors Wim Leemans and Christian Harringa, and Science Senator Katharina Fegebank (from left). Image: © DESY, Georg Wendt
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"With the PETRA IV super X-ray source, we are planning another research flagship in Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld that will attract numerous researchers from all over the world."
"At DESY, we combine excellent basic research with current topics of applied research that are of vital importance for the economy and society, including the health sector," said Prof. Dr. Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Directorate, promoting DESY's future project PETRA IV: "In order for Germany to remain a world leader in X-ray analytics, we urgently need to upgrade the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source with the PETRA IV project. PETRA IV combines groundbreaking accelerator technology with AI-supported analytics and will, in the future, be the best synchrotron radiation source in the world."
Dosch added: "As a national analytics centre, DESY already offers an optimal innovation environment for researchers and companies. With PETRA IV, this service on DESY's interdisciplinary research campus with its strong partner network will be a trailblazer worldwide." The DESY campus is already home to numerous academic institutes and research centres, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) with its partners, including the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), the Leibniz Institute for Virology (LIV) and the University Medical Center Eppendorf (UKE).
The participants of the Life Science Forum with Hamburg's Science Senator Katharina Fegebank and Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (centre). Image: DESY, Georg Wendt
Therefore, at the end of the DESY visit by Federal Health Minister Lauterbach, there was also an exchange on the topic of health research. In addition to the DESY Directorate and institute directors of the health research branches on the DESY campus, Dr. Christiane Honisch, Head of the Diagnostics Department at Evotec, and Hamburg's Science Senator and Second Mayor Katharina Fegebank also took part in the "Life Science Forum". "The DESY research campus in Bahrenfeld already combines world-class large-scale research facilities, an international research community and world-class institutes," said Fegebank. "DESY has significantly shaped the development of the site and will continue to do so in the future with regional and international significance. With the PETRA IV super X-ray source, we are planning another research flagship in Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld that will attract numerous researchers from all over the world."
DESY press release dated 30.06.2023 and is published online here with the kind authorisation of the editors.