Outreach

Did you know?

Our nerve pathways measure a total of 5.8 million kilometers – this could span the earth 145 times.
Nerve impulses travel to and from the brain at about 270 kilometers per hour.
The world’s highest-resolution brain scan of a living human was done by scientists at the University of Magdeburg in 2017.
The human brain weighs about 2 percent of our body weight, but consumes nearly 20 percent of the body`s energy.

University medicine for all –
for respectful and peaceful coexistence

charta of diversity

The University Medical Center Magdeburg is very concerned about the spread of extremist ideologies, discrimination, and the current increase in anti-Semitic incidents and statements in public and at universities. Magdeburg University Medicine distances itself from this behavior in the strongest possible terms. Extremist, racist, discriminatory, and anti-Semitic statements and actions will not be tolerated. The members of University Medicine Magdeburg stand together for peaceful and respectful coexistence. Every person, regardless of origin, religion, or ideology, must be able to feel respected and valued at Magdeburg University Medical Center.

CRC 1436 Coordination

We support you in all matters concerning the Collaborative Research Center.

Coordinator of the CRC 1436 Julia Rödiger

Dr. Julia Rödiger

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Bianca Dupré

Dr. Julia Rödiger

coming soon

Bianca Dupré

Bianca Dupré is part of the coordination team of the Collaborative Research Center 1436. She supports the projects in all administrative matters and is the central contact person for financial questions in the CRC.

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The Press Office of the Medical Faculty of the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg informs about news from research and teaching.
For media inquiries regarding these areas, we are happy to help. Find more information.

CRC Steering Committee

spokesperson / deputy spokesperson

CRC 1436 Spokesperson Emrah Düzel

Prof. Dr. med. Emrah Düzel

CRC 1436 Co-Spokesperson Michael Kreutz

Dr. Michael R. Kreutz

Prof. Dr. med. Emrah Düzel

Emrah Düzel has trained as a neurologist in Germany (in Bonn and Magdeburg). He is working as a cognitive neurologist on the functional anatomy of human episodic memory networks, neuromodulatory circuits, their clinical and mechanistic alterations in aging and neurodegeneration and their scope for plasticity. He leads the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research and Memory Clinic at the OvG University Magdeburg. As speaker of the Magdeburg site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE, Helmholtz Society), he supports the implementation and analysis of imaging and cognition measures for early Alzheimer’s disease. He is also a part time group leader at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Univ. College London, a fellow of the Max-Planck School of Cognition and co-founder of the digital health start-up neotiv. Within the newly founded German Network of Memory Clinics, he coordinates a working group on Digital Health and Telemedicine.

Dr. Michael R. Kreutz

Michael R. Kreutz is head of the Neuroplasticity research group at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and he has a second affiliation at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH) in Hamburg where he is heading the Leibniz Group ‘Dendritic Organelles and Synaptic Function’. His research interest is in synapse biology. His work is concerned with fundamental questions on how synapses communicate with the nucleus, how gene activity-dependent gene expression feeds back to synaptic function and how this is related to the formation of a cellular engram and last but not least how the nanoscale organization of the synapse determines functional properties in the context of learning and memory.

advisory members

  • Prof. Carol Barnes
  • Prof. Eckart Gundelfinger

resently joint advisor

  • Prof. Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

steering committee

CRC 1436 member Anne Albrecht

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Anne Albrecht

CRC 1436 member Daniela Dieterich

Prof. Dr. Daniela Dieterich

CRC 1436 member Anne Maaß

Prof. Dr. Anne Maass

CRC 1436 member Toemme Noesselt

Prof. Dr. Toemme Noesselt

CRC_member Janelle Pakan

Prof. Dr. Janelle Pakan 

CRC 1436 member Stefan Remy

Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Remy

CRC 1436 member Magdalena Sauvage

Prof. Dr. Magdalena Sauvage

CRC 1436 member Constanze Seidenbecher

Prof. Dr. Constanze Seidenbecher

CRC 1436 member Markus Ullsperger

Prof. Dr. med. Markus Ullsperger

CRC 1436 member Thomas Wolbers

Prof. Dr. Thomas Wolbers

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Anne Albrecht

Anne Albrecht is the head of the Department of Neuroanatomy at the Institute of Anatomy at the Otto-von-Guericke University. Her research group studies the functional neuroanatomy of emotional memory and stress adaptation circuits. She also teaches anatomy to 1st and 2nd year medical students.

The focus of her research is on the investigation of GABAergic interneurons and neuropeptides in learning, memory and stress processing in rodent models. To analyze the role of e.g. orexin in circuits of memory formation, her group uses neuronal tracing, high-resolution methods for expression analysis (RNAScope, laser-assisted microdissection & qPCR) as well as viral and pharmacological interventions in conjunction with behavioral analysis in mice and structural and molecular studies in cell and tissue cultures.

Prof. Dr. Daniela Dieterich

Daniela C. Dieterich is an expert addressing the role of synaptic protein homeostasis regulation through the coordinated control of translation and degradation. She has developed and applied cutting-edge technologies involving ‘click-chemistry’ that provide the consortium with tools to address dynamic changes in these processes with unprecedented temporal and cellular resolution, ultimately allowing the cell-selective identification of neuronal and glial access points.

Prof. Dr. Anne Maass

Dr. Anne Maass is a group leader at the DZNE (since 2019) and her work focuses on the use of Multimodal neuroimaging techniques for understanding how brain function changes in aging and age-related disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In her previous work, she used ultra-high resolution functional MRI to investigate memory pathways in the medial temporal lobe and its plasticity in the human brain in aging and disease. During her Post Doc at UC Berkeley, she combined functional MRI with molecular imaging (PET), which allows to assess AD pathology, to investigate how early tau and amyloid-beta pathology affects memory function, ultimately resulting in memory deficits. At the DZNE she now combines different neuroimaging techniques to better understand what drives the accumulation of age-related pathology (e.g. aberrant activation) and why some people do not develop pathology (are resistant) or why others remain cognitively normal in face of pathology (are resilient). Within the SFB1436 she leads the Z03 project together with Prof. Düzel and Prof. Kreissl as well as the project B04 together with Esther Kühn and Stefanie Schreiber (Co-PI: Nadine Diersch).

Prof. Dr. Toemme Noesselt

Toemme Noesselt is the Chair of the Biological Psychology Department of the Institute of Psychology. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the Universities of Heidelberg, Düsseldorf and UCLA, USA, completed his PhD at the University of Magdeburg and a PostDoc at the UCL, UK in Jon Driver’s lab. His research aims at identifying the neural underpinnings of multisensory perception and memory by combining behavioural with electrophysiological and brain-imaging read-outs.   

Prof. Dr. Janelle Pakan 

Janelle Pakan is Group Leader of the Neural Circuits & Network Dynamics research group funded by the Center for Behavioural Brain Sciences at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. She completed her PhD work in Canada at the University of Alberta and postdoc work at UBC before relocating to Europe to complete Fellowships in Ireland and at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on understanding the functional neural circuits that underlie the transformation of sensory information to behavioural output in both health and disease states. She utilizes functional neuroanatomical techniques and advanced two-photon imaging in behaving mice in combination with virtual environments.

Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Remy

Stefan Remy is the scientific director of LIN, head of the Department of Cellular Neuroscience and is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at the Medical Faculty of Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg.

He received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 2003 and subsequently did his postdoctoral research with Heinz Beck at the Department of Epileptology (Director: Christian E. Elger). As an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, he joined the Department of Neurobiology and Physiologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, USA. There he conducted research on synaptic plasticity and neuronal excitability under Nelson Spruston. In 2007, he continued his research with Heinz Beck in Bonn, where he founded his own research group in 2009, funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Before taking up his new duties at LIN in 2020, he spent 10 years as head of the “Neuronal Networks” research group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn. Stefan Remy is spokesperson of the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) and represents the Magdeburg site (in the Jena-Magdeburg-Halle network) at the newly founded German Center for Mental Health.

Prof. Dr. Magdalena Sauvage

Magdalena Sauvage leads the Functional Architecture of Memory (FAM) department and co-directs the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) in Magdeburg. She gained expertise in memory function throughout her career at the MPI for Psychiatry (Munich, Germany), MIT (Graybiel lab, Boston, USA) and Boston University (Eichenbaum lab, USA). Her department investigates the neural basis of memory in health and pathology using human to rats translational tasks combined with high-resolution molecular imaging, optogenetics, single-cell in-vivo electrophysiology and 9.4T fMRI in awake rats. She organizes the biennal international and interdisciplinary FAM conference series, is member of the CRC1436 Steering Committee and serves as editor for “Neurobiology of Learning and Memory”.

Prof. Dr. Constanze Seidenbecher

Constanze Seidenbecher is a molecular neuroscientist and member of the CRC1436 Steering Committee. She is head of the Synapse-Brain-Cognition group in the Behavioral Neurology department at LIN Magdeburg, together with Björn Schott, and also heads the LIN Science Management & Public Outreach office. Her research is focused on synaptic molecules and the perisynaptic extracellular matrix of the brain as determinants of neural and homeostatic plasticity. She is council member of the International Society for Neurochemistry and chair of the ISN Career Development committee and she serves as editor for Journal of Neurochemistry.

Prof. Dr. med. Markus Ullsperger

Markus Ullsperger is full professor and head of the Department of Neuropsychology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg since 2012 as well as a principal investigator (PI) at the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) Magdeburg. His research of about 20 years aims at understanding the structural, functional and neuro-chemical aspects of performance monitoring and cognitive control. To that end he’s using an integrative approach combining neuroimaging, EEG, computational modeling and pharmacological interventions in the healthy population but also in patients with neurological or psychiatric disorders.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Wolbers

Thomas Wolbers is the head of the Aging, Cognition & Technology group at the DZNE Magdeburg. By exploiting the unique potential of extended reality (XR) technologies, he has established an ambitious research program that (i) employs spatial navigation as a model system for understanding mechanisms of healthy and pathological ageing, (ii) develops XR based diagnostic tools to improve the assessment of cognitive health, and (iii) implements technology-based interventions to counteract emotional and cognitive deficits. In addition, he entertains international cooperations to broaden his research portfolio with computational modelling, software engineering and research on animal models of aging.

Civic Stakeholder Engagement

This board is coordinated by Robert Pohl.

As part of the research cluster “Cognitive Vitality – a healthy mind in every body”, the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, headed by Prof. Dr. Düzel, and the Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, headed by Prof. Dr. Dr. Apfelbacher have established a dedicated group of people with personal experience of cognitive impairment from their everyday lives and/ or their professional/volunteer environment.

This interdisciplinary group of experts and individuals with personal experience of cognitive/mental impairment, independent of medical endorsement, can contribute a comprehensive perspective on the challenges and needs in the field of cognitive health as well as new perspectives to our research. In doing so, we strive to achieve the following goals:

  • Participation and exchange: by involving people with different backgrounds and experiences, we encourage a lively exchange of ideas and solutions.
  • Support for research: Board members support the planning and implementation of our research projects by sharing their personal experiences from everyday life, their professional, or their voluntary environment.
  • Improving quality of life: Through collaborative efforts to investigate and protect cognitive performance to improve the quality of life of those affected.

The Cognitive Vitality Cluster has established a Civic Stakeholder Board in which 10 citizens participate who are affected by cognitive impairment, for instance in relation to a medical condition such as chemotherapy or surgery, or due to a neurodegenerative condition, or simply because they are interested in cognitive health. This was done also with the research of the CRC in mind.

To this end, Civic Stakeholder Engagement is actively integrated into the annual CRC retreat and the annual general meeting, where it is given the opportunity for joint discussion and the creation of new perspectives. In addition, an evening event is organised once a year to support the communication in the board.

The Civic Stakeholder Board will provide an important first person perspective and guidance to the CRC in the second funding period. Together with our Civic Stakeholder Board we will develop a participatory format for communication with older adults and patients at risk of or suffering from cognitive impairment. In this format we will also discuss the ethical questions surrounding the accelerated use of AI, and privacy of the mind. Most importantly, CRC researchers, including those who are working with animals, will have the opportunity to get a firsthand insight into the worries and priorities of persons with cognitive challenges.

Participants wanted

QR-Code des Sona Systems zur Probandenregistrierung

Who can claim to help with really big breakthroughs in medicine… you maybe? Of course!

Apply as a participant in one of our trials.
Are you a super-ager? Find out!

Or join us to find out if exercise improves memory or if cognitive fitness in old age is just a matter of hard work.

Open recruitments you will finde here:

Participants 18 years and older

Participants 50 years and older

Simply Explained

Demenz: Expertin erklärt Ursachen und Behandlung
05.04.2024 ∙ Mittagsmagazin ∙ Das Erste