Navigation mit Access Keys

Networks for our research

Research is increasingly carried out in interdisciplinary networks and in both national and international research associations. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that interdisciplinary approaches are often very helpful or even indispensible for successful research into complex problems. With its interdisciplinary orientation and the intensive cooperation between individual research groups, the Biozentrum is a research network in its own right.

The Biozentrum is currently participating in the following scientific networks:

Basel Stem Cell Network (BSCN)
Stem cell research is one of the main focuses of the University of Basel. In the Basel Stem Cell Network (BSCN) center of excellence, basic researchers, pharmaceutical researchers, medical professionals, lawyers, and ethicists work together to answer questions in this fascinating field of research, considered by many to be regenerative medicine and the therapy of the 21st century. Research groups from the Biozentrum, the Department of Biomedicine, the Basel University Hospital, the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI), as well as the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, and the Novartis and Roche pharmaceutical companies, are all involved in the BSCN. 

Neuroscience Network Basel and Neurex
The Neuroscience Network Basel (NNB) center of excellence, which arose from the Basel Neuroscience Program, represents one of the most concentrated neuroscientific networks in the world. It includes more than 400 scientists from more than 40 different research groups working in several faculties at the university, the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI), the University Hospital, the Department of Biosystems and Systems Engineering (D-BSSE) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, and in industry. NEUREX, the three-nation network founded in 1999 with centers in Freiburg im Breisgau, Strasburg and Basel, also belongs to this center of excellence. As part of the EUCOR cooperation, NEUREX brings about 1000 researchers in 100 laboratories into the network. 

Treat-NMD – Neuromuscular Network
TREAT-NMD is a European network initiative, to which the Biozentrum and Santhera Pharmaceuticals contribute, with the aim of accelerating the development of effective treatment for rare but usually fatal neuromuscular diseases (NMDs). At the present time, there is no medication available for many of these conditions. 

Basel Computational Biology Center [BC]2
The Basel Computational Biology Conference [BC]2 offers students and researchers a comprehensive overview of the interface between biology and information technology. The annual conference that focuses on a single topic is organized by the Bioinformatics work group of the University of Basel's Biozentrum and the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics (SIB). The event has become an important European conference in the field of computational biology.

University consortium: Swiss High-field NMR Facility
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful method for studying the structure, function, and dynamics of biomacromolecules under natural conditions. The newly established NMR facility includes several state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers. In addition, the newly developed high-resolution 1.2 GHz solution NMR spectrometer will be installed at the Zurich site in 2024. With the combination of high and ultrahigh fields, the facility enables researchers from academia and industry to analyze large protein complexes and medically relevant target structures at atomic level. The Swiss High-Field Solution NMR Facility is operated jointly by the Universities of Basel and Zurich and ETH Zurich and is also actively involved in teaching and training structural biologists. 
 

Large-scale projects financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)

National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) projects
The National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) comprise the Swiss National Science Foundation's innovative instrument to facilitate research. Researchers across different institutions and disciplines work closely together. Through this specific way of scientific collaboration, the NCCR promotes top quality research and brings clear additional benefits. The Biozentrum is involved in the following NCCR:

Sinergia projects
With Sinergia, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) supports scientific network projects of at least three to a maximum of six research groups. A combined approach to research should allow advances into promising new areas of research. An important aspect is the influence of the cooperation on the qualifications of young academics.

In addition, there are various other ongoing collaborations in EU-Projects, the International Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) and with NIH grants.