German Resource Center for Genome Research

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Neo-Baroque institute building in Berlin

The German Resource Center for Genome Research (RZPD, R esources for Entrum P rimär d ATABASE) was a service center for genetic and genome research in Berlin - Charlottenburg and in Heidelberg .

history

In 1987, Hans Lehrach and Günther Zehetner founded the Reference Library / Primary Database (RLDB) at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) in London , which contains the macroarrays produced at the ICRF ( clones of genomic and cDNA banks) distributed to research groups worldwide. At the beginning of 1995 the RLDB was relocated to the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin , where it continued its work.

In the summer of 1995, the Resource Center was founded as part of the German Human Genome Project by Hans Lehrach (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin-Dahlem ), Günther Zehetner (MPIMG, Scientific Director of the Berlin Resource Center until July 2000) and Annemarie Poustka ( German Cancer Research Center , Heidelberg), which took over the tasks of the RLDB as a resource center / primary database (RZPD). For this, it received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which made materials available to members of the DHGP free of charge and to other researchers at low cost. The RZPD developed into the largest database for genetic clones worldwide and was associated with many of the most important national and international research projects in genetic and genome research.

On July 1, 2000, the RZPD was transformed into a non-profit company with limited liability (GmbH). This GmbH was supported by three of the most important research companies in the German research landscape: the Max Planck Society , the German Cancer Research Center and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC Berlin-Buch ). The scientific partners were Hans Lehrach (MPIMG), Annemarie Poustka (DKFZ), Jens Reich (MDC), Matthias Uhlén ( Karolinska Institute , Stockholm ) and Harald zur Hausen (DKFZ).

The non-profit GmbH was dissolved on July 31, 2007, a large part of the previous services was provided by the company ImaGenes , which was founded by the managing directors Johannes Maurer and Martin Stock , as well as ATLAS, which was co-founded by Hans Lehrach and the former RZPD department heads Uwe Radelof and Bernd Drescher Biolabs GmbH in Berlin taken over.

Services

The scope of services included the provision of genomic cell clones and cDNA databases, cell cultures , microarrays , expression profiles , Affymetrix services and PCR offers . By setting up the primary database, standardized material was made available to researchers around the world.

architecture

The RZPD was initially housed in the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin-Dahlem and then moved to a nearby site on Harnackstrasse (which now houses the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science ) before the Berlin branch in the The former building of the Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria- Baby Home in Heubnerweg in Berlin-Charlottenburg found its final location. The neo-baroque building was erected between 1907 and 1909 under the direction of the architect and Berlin city planning officer Ludwig Hoffmann ; the planning was largely carried out by the architect Alfred Messel .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günther Zehetner, Hans Lehrach: The Reference Library System - sharing biological material and experimental data . In: Nature , Vol 367, February 3, 1994, pp. 489-491
  2. ^ Günther Zehetner, Maria Pack, Katja Schäfer: Preparation and Screening of High-Density cDNA Arrays with Genomic Clones . In: MP Starkey, R. Elaswarapu (eds.): Methods in Molecular Biology , vol. 175, 2001, pp. 169-188, Genomics Protocols, Humana Press, Totowa NJ
  3. ↑ Max Planck Institute wants to set up a gene bank . In: Die Welt , May 31, 1995
  4. ↑ RZPD becomes ImaGenes - economic success enables change of legal form. In: GenomXPress , 3/07, 2007.
  5. ↑ Development and perspectives of scientific services offered by genomic biological resource centers . In: Oxford Journals, Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics , 2007, Volume 6, Number 3, pp. 163-170