About us

Managing Director

Prof. Dr. Michael Hoch
Life & Medical Sciences Institute (LIMES)
University of Bonn
Carl-Troll-Straße 31
D - 53115 Bonn

phone: +49 2 28 / 73 - 6 27 36
fax: +49 2 28 / 73 - 6 26 39
m.hoch@uni-bonn.de

Focus of the Institute

The Life & Medical Sciences Institute (LIMES) is a center of excellence for both basic research and higher education in Life Sciences and Biomedicine at the University of Bonn. It provides a framework for cutting-edge multidisciplinary research and offers young scientists early independence and responsibility.

A common scientific focus of the LIMES Institute is to study metabolism and immunity and their cross-regulation in health and disease.

The LIMES research groups provide major research expertise in Chemical Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, Development, Genetics, Cell and Immune Biology, Membrane Biology and Lipid Biochemistry. They co-operate in a number of interdisciplinary research initiatives funded by the German Research Foundation DFG (Collaborative Research Centers SFBs 645, 704).

Furthermore, the LIMES groups have set up various teaching programs including the undergraduate study program Molecular biomedicine, the joint Summer School program Life Sciences & Culture Bonn with Harvard University and the Post Graduate Training Group GRK 804. A novel International Graduate School Life & Medical Sciences offers a combined M.Sc./PhD program from October 2008 onwards. Regular retreats, seminars and conferences, as well as a lively social agenda encourage the communication between the different LIMES groups and foster interdisciplinary research and teaching.

History of LIMES

The LIMES concept

The LIMES concept was developed in the year 2000 by two newly appointed professors, M. Hoch (Biology) and M. Famulok (Chemistry), as a vision and strategy of how interdisciplinary and internationally competitive research at the interface of biology, chemistry, and medicine could be developed at the University of Bonn in the next decade. The three main objectives of the LIMES concept were:

establishing joint interdisciplinary research initiatives funded by the German Research foundation (DFG) with the aim to generate new consolidated research foci of the participating groups from the biology, chemistry, pharmacy and medicine departments,
creating novel interdisciplinary undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate training programs with the aim to generate a new generation of young scientists that is well trained at the interfaces of biology, chemistry and medicine and can be integrated into the local research groups,
assembling the participating LIMES groups into a new building, the LIMES Research Center, to foster synergy in research and teaching.

In the last years, the LIMES steering group (Hoch, Famulok and Kolanus) together with other colleagues from the Faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine have successfully laid the foundation for a dynamic development of research and education in the Life and Medical Sciences at the University of Bonn. These novel and truly interdisciplinary activities have already yielded exciting collaborative efforts at many levels.

The LIMES Research Programs: Merging Life & Medical Sciences with Chemical Biology

A number of coherent research programs of excellence that successfully bridge and merge key scientific activities in the areas of Membrane Biology, Molecular Immunology and Chemical Biology have been established. These include:

the Research Group FOR 425 “Aptamers, drugs, signalling molecules: combinatorial analysis of cell function and organogenesis” (2001-2004; speaker: M. Hoch; co-speaker: M. Famulok)
the Post Graduate Training Group GRK 804 “Analysis of cellular functions by combinatorial chemistry and biochemistry” (since 2002; speaker: M. Famulok; co-speaker: C. Müller)
the SFB 645 “Regulation and manipulation of dynamic protein and lipid environments” (since 2005; speaker: M. Hoch; co-speaker: M. Famulok)
the SFB 704 "Molecular Mechanisms and Chemical modulation of local immune regulation" (since 2006; speaker: W. Kolanus; co-speaker: P. Knolle)

The LIMES Study Programs: Bridging the Educational Gap between Chemistry, Biology and Medicine

In parallel to the establishment of novel research initiatives, the LIMES groups initiated new interdisciplinary educational programs of excellence at the University of Bonn.

In 2003/2004 the new undergraduate study program Molecular Biomedicine was initiated with great success as a joint program of LIMES and the Faculty of Medicine. Its aim is to combine molecular approaches, methods and recent insights into Life Sciences with knowledge on human congenital disorders. With 900 applications in average for the 30 places which are available each year, this study program belongs to the most successful of its kind in Germany.

In 2006, LIMES initiated the Life Science & Culture Bonn program jointly with Harvard University. This program is funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). The program which is offered to very excellent undergraduate students of Harvard in their 2nd and 3rd year aims to combine laboratory experience in biomedical research with the acquisition of intercultural skills in the international city of Bonn.

A novel International Graduate School LIMES Chemical Biology leads students from Germany or abroad with a B.Sc. degree in any field of Life Sciences through a M.Sc. phase (1.5 years) directly to doctoral studies (doctoral degree Dr. rer. nat., German equivalent to PhD). The program will start in autumn 2008.

A new Academic Structure for LIMES: The Division “Molecular Biomedicine”

In 2006, a new interdisciplinary academic structure was created in the Faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences that constitutes the organisational basis of the LIMES activities, the Division Molecular Biomedicine. This was the first introduction of a new division into the Faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences within 40 years. The Division Molecular Biomedicine supports and effectively coordinates the structures outlined above and complements the existing divisions of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Physics/Astronomy, Mathematics/Informatics, and GeoSciences.

New LIMES Professorships and Independent Junior Research groups

Life Sciences and Chemical Biology belong to the main research and teaching foci at the University of Bonn, and LIMES has been acknowledged to be central to these areas. The Rectorate of the University of Bonn has therefore allocated in 2006 and 2007 five new professorships to LIMES which we have begun to fill since last year. The new professorships strengthen the core of LIMES which will consist of eleven faculty members once the positions will have been filled. In addition, a number of Independent Junior Research groups will be integrated into LIMES, once the new building will be raised.

The LIMES building

The novel LIMES building has recently been raised in the center of the city of Bonn (in Bonn-Poppelsdorf), where a new University campus will be built in the next decade. It provides space for labs and offices (about 3.800 sqm). Furthermore, it contains central facilities and a common infrastructure for research and teaching of the LIMES groups. The novel building hosts seminars and conferences, as well as social events which further foster synergistic activities of the LIMES groups.

Webcam

You can follow the construction of the LIMES biocenter under

http://limes.verwaltung.uni-bonn.de/

or visit our photo gallery.