TIGER roaming the Rhine valley

February 20, 2013

The Bernstein Center Freiburg hosts a new project, strenghtening the research of neurological diseases from the perspective of theoretical neuroscience. Within the “Trinationale Initiative Gehirnerkrankungen” (TIGER – Trinational Initiative on Brain Diseases) scientists from Freiburg, Strasbourg/France and Basel/Switzerland investigate the neuronal networks involved in several brain diseases. They place special emphasis on such conditions as movement disorders, epilepsy, and anxiety. The research initiative has a budget of almost € 1.4 million, with half of the amount being contributed by the European Union.

The clinical and some of the molecular and cellular aspects that are associated with these diseases have been described already. However, experts are still puzzled by the question how pathological changes of cellular properties affect the function of neuronal networks in a negative way, eventually leading to the observed clinical symptoms. The TIGER research initiative addresses neurological dysfunctions from the perspective of their underlying neuronal networks and sets out to investigate how clinical treatments could possibly modulate the activity of these networks. Neurophysiological studies in specific animal models as well as computational modelling of neuronal networks form the basis of this research.

Besides its scientific goals, the initiative aims to facilitate and enhance the transnational interaction between the large regional research clusters within the life sciences and related fields of technology. Major examples of these research centres in the Upper Rhine Valley are the new Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools on neurotechnology, the Spitzencluster Südwest on biomedical engineering, the initiatives Neurex and TriNeuron, and the CNRS institutes in France.

The project is co-funded from 2012 until 2015 by the European Union within its INTERREG framework.
 

INTERREG IV Upper Rhine -Transcending borders with every project
Cofinanced by the European Union/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

Contact:
Ulrich Egert