Institute for Medicine and Biology

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Institute for Medicine and Biology
Category: research Institute
Consist: 1947-1992
Facility location: Berlin-Buch , German Democratic Republic
Type of research: Basic research
Areas of expertise: Cancer research , biochemistry , biophysics , microbiology , genetics , pharmacology , circulatory research , applied isotope research , physics , biology , cell physiology
Management: Walter Friedrich (founding director; president from 1955)
Employee:
  • 145 employees, including 27 scientists (1949)
  • 383 employees, including 49 scientists (1953)
  • 530 employees (1955)
  • 1,200 employees, including> 200 scientists (1963)

The Institute for Medicine and Biology was a non-university research institute of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW) based in Berlin-Buch .

history

founding

The institute was established in June 1947 on the instructions of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) and the German Administration for Public Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone in the premises of the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research . Founding director was the biophysicist Walter Friedrich , who acted as president of the institute from 1955. The institute's task was to combine theoretical and experimental basic research with clinical medicine with a focus on cancer research . The institute was expanded several times and in 1948 received a clinic for tumor diseases with 55 beds. In addition, departments for biological and chemical cancer research, for biochemistry and for biophysics , for microbiology and for genetics as well as for pharmacology were created . Research activities focused on investigations into the metabolism of tumors , the carcinogenic effects of chemical substances and certain viruses, and the biological effects of X-rays . In addition, in 1955 a work center for circulatory research was established, through which the work of the institute was expanded to include cardiovascular diseases . At the end of 1949 the institute had 145 employees, including 27 scientists. Four years later, the number of employees had risen to 383, including 49 scientists.

reorganization

In 1955, the institute, which at that time had 530 employees and during its existence was one of the largest biomedical research institutions in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was divided into six largely independent areas for biochemistry, pharmacology, applied isotope research , physics, and biology Cell physiology divided, each headed by their own directors. In addition, there was the clinic, which was named after the pathologist Robert Rössle from 1958 , as well as the circulatory research department and the central administration and facilities department .

Medical-biological research center of the DAW

In 1961 the medical-biological research center of the DAW emerged from the institute , which in 1963 had around 1,200 employees with over 200 scientists. It was called "Institute for Medicine and Biology in Berlin-Buch" and consisted of the six institutes for biochemistry , for biophysics , for applied isotope research , for experimental cancer research , for pharmacology and for cell physiology , which came from the previous areas of the institute for medicine and biology, and the Institute for Cortico-Visceral Pathology and Therapy , founded in 1956 , the Robert-Rössle-Klinik and the work centers for circulatory research and infectious diseases in childhood. At the beginning of January 1972 these facilities were merged into three central institutes for molecular biology , for cancer research and for cardiovascular regulation research .

After German reunification

After the political change in the GDR and German reunification , the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine emerged in 1992 from the three central institutes .

literature

  • The Institutes of Medicine and Biology 1947–1971. In: Heinz Bielka : History of the medical-biological institutes Berlin-Buch. Second edition. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-540-42842-9 , pp. 68-93
  • The research location Berlin-Buch and the research policy of the GDR until the late sixties. In: Gerhard A. Ritter , Margit Szöllösi-Janze , Helmuth Trischler : Answers to the American Challenge: Research in the Federal Republic and the GDR in the "long" seventies. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-593-36207-4 , pp. 340-358