The University of Würzburg and the University Hospital have been awarded two new Collaborative Research Centres (CRC). Four other CRC with Würzburg participation have been so successful in their research that they can continue their work. This was announced today by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in a press release.
The success rate could not be better: All six proposals from Würzburg were approved. One Collaborative Research Centre is for chemistry, the others for medicine.
University President Paul Pauli congratulates all those involved: "I am delighted with your success! Congratulations and good luck with the excellent and challenging research projects that will soon be able to start or continue. My sincere thanks go to everyone who was involved in the time-consuming preparation of the proposals."
Professor Matthias Frosch, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, was also delighted: "The approval of five Collaborative Research Centres in the field of medicine is an outstanding success for Würzburg University Medicine. This decision confirms our strategy to develop excellent research structures and is another important milestone. I would like to thank everyone involved for their great commitment."
Challenging Research Topics
Collaborative Research Centres are long-term programmes for the promotion of cutting-edge research that are funded by the DFG. Researchers in CRCs work on innovative, challenging issues across disciplines.
In the current round of awards, the DFG has approved nine new Collaborative Research Centres. It will fund them from April 2026 for three years and nine months each with a total of around 120 million euros. The Grants Committee also voted in favour of extending 32 CRCs for a further funding period each.
The Two New Würzburg Collaborative Research Centres
Boron as Property-Determining Element (BORONPro)
A new Collaborative Research Centre will be established at the University of Würzburg, which will focus on the element boron. The DFG is expected to fund it with around 12 million euros.
"Molecular compounds that contain boron are characterised by their broad application potential," says Professor Maik Finze, the spokesperson for the new BORONPro Collaborative Research Centre. Surprisingly, this potential has so far been largely unrealised: at present, boron compounds are usually only used as disposable molecules in chemical syntheses, during which they are then lost.
The researchers in the CRC want to change this: they want to develop strategies with which innovative boron-containing functional materials can be produced. The chances of success are likely to be very good: No other place in the world has a greater concentration of expertise on boron than the University of Würzburg with its Institute for Sustainable Chemistry and Catalysis with Boron (ICB) and its Institute of Inorganic Chemistry.
Boron-containing molecules have such diverse properties that they are particularly interesting for materials science, medicine and pharmacy. Functional materials with boron as a property-determining element can be used for energy technology and optoelectronics, among other things.
+ Electrolytes for batteries and supercapacitors as well as materials for organic light-emitting diodes are being researched as part of BORONPro.
+ Another field of application is chemical synthesis: here the focus is on the development of boron-based catalysts for the efficient and resource-saving and therefore sustainable production of fine chemicals.
+ The third area is biomolecules containing boron. The focus here is on potential applications in medical diagnostics and drug delivery, where the element boron offers novel and promising possibilities.
JMU working groups from chemistry, physics and pharmacy are involved in the new CRC. Teams from the Universities of Bonn, Frankfurt/Main and Cologne and the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in Würzburg are also involved.
Desmosomal dysfunction in epithelial barriers (DEFINE)
The new CRC/Transregio is a co-operation between the Universities of Marburg (host university), LMU Munich and Würzburg. The site spokesperson in Würzburg is Professor Nicolas Schlegel, Chair of Experimental Visceral Surgery and Head of the Endocrine Surgery Section at the Department of Surgery I at the University Hospital.
The DFG is funding the CRC from 2026 to 2029 with an estimated 14 million euros.
Desmosomes are at the centre of the CRC. These protein structures connect cells at interfaces in the body in such a way that a barrier is created. Functioning barriers in the skin and intestines are vital, meaning that serious diseases can develop if they malfunction.
The researchers are focussing on three diseases: The autoimmune disease Pemphigus vulgaris. It occurs when the body's own immune cells mistakenly attack desmosomes in the skin. The discovery that desmosomes also play a role in inflammatory bowel diseases was made in Würzburg, among other places. The researchers are also focusing on inflammation of the oesophagus(eosinophilic oesophagitis), in the development of which mutations of desmosomes are involved.
"I am very pleased that our CRC has been approved and that we thus have the opportunity to significantly increase the still very limited knowledge about the regulation of epithelial barriers in health and disease and to develop novel therapeutic strategies against the diseases mentioned," says site spokesperson Schlegel.
In order to achieve this goal, researchers from cell biology and immunology are working closely with clinicians from surgery, dermatology, internal medicine and paediatrics in the new CRC.
A unique feature of this CRC is that it is currently the only one in Germany to have been set up under the leadership of a surgeon. Eleven of the 35 project leaders are based in Würzburg.
The Four Continuing Würzburg Collaborative Research Centres
From the Fundamentals of Biofabrication towards Functional Tissue Models (Biofab)
The CRC/Transregio is jointly funded by the Universities of Würzburg (host university), Bayreuth and Erlangen-Nuremberg. The spokesperson for the network is Professor Jürgen Groll, Head of the Chair of Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry at the University Hospital of Würzburg.
The Collaborative Research Centre is expected to receive around 14 million euros from the DFG for the third funding period (2026 to 2029).
The work centres on the development of automated 3D printing processes with which living cells and biomaterials are processed into tissue constructs. These constructs resemble human tissue and can mature into fully functional models. Such biofabricated tissues offer the potential to reduce animal testing , open up new approaches for pharmaceutical and cancer research and, in the long term, be used as regenerative replacements for heart, bone or cartilage defects.
Since its establishment in 2018, the network has made significant scientific progress : More than 360 publications in renowned journals, thirteen patent applications and a successfully growing spin-off emphasise the scientific and technological relevance of the project.
In the third funding period, the researchers want to further optimise the maturing process of the 3D-printed tissue constructs in particular. A particular focus will be on models for the central nervous system and on applications in infection research.
Lymphocyte Engineering for Therapeutic Synthetic Immunity (LETSimmun)
A CRC/Transregio co-operation of the Technical University of Munich (host university) with the LMU Munich and the University of Würzburg. The site spokesperson in Würzburg is Professor Hermann Einsele, Director of the Medical Clinic II at the University Hospital.
In its second funding period (2026 to mid-2029), the DFG is funding the CRC with an estimated eleven million euros.
The CRC, which has been funded since 2021, is working on new techniques and strategies to modify lymphocytes and other immune cells in such a way that they can be used to optimise the fight against infections, tumours or autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism. The therapeutic immune cells are also to be made resistant to the body's own regulatory mechanisms that reduce or prevent their functioning.
The Adrenal: Central Relay in Health and Disease
A CRC/Transregio co-operation of the Technische Universität Dresden (host university) with the LMU Munich and the University of Würzburg. The site spokesperson in Würzburg is Professor Martin Fassnacht, Head of the Chair of Endocrinology and Diabetology at the University Hospital.
In its third funding period (2026-2029), the DFG is expected to fund the CRC/Transregio with around 14 million euros.
The CRC, which has been funded since 2017, researches the role of the adrenal glands in health and as a trigger for many diseases. Its aim is to develop the basis for new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for the treatment of adrenal diseases. This primarily involves diseases with excess hormones, which are often triggered by adrenal tumours , but also hormone deficiency diseases. The focus is also on common diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which are closely linked to diseases of the adrenal glands.
The researchers have already developed several diagnostic methods and new therapy concepts that have found their way into patient care. The close co-operation between the three locations has significantly strengthened the research topic.
Modulation of graft-versus-host and graft-versus-leukemia immune responses after allogeneic stem cell transplantation
A CRC/Transregio co-operation between the universities of Regensburg (host university), Erlangen-Nuremberg and Würzburg. The site spokesperson in Würzburg is Professor Hermann Einsele, Director of the Medical Clinic II at the University Hospital.
In what is now its third funding period (2026 to 2029), the DFG is funding the Collaborative Research Centre with an estimated 15 million euros.
Since 2018, the CRC teams have been researching fundamental immunological mechanisms that take place in the treatment of leukaemia through stem cell transplants. They want to better understand the positive effects that the donor's immune cells have in the recipient's body. The aim is to strengthen these effects in order to prevent a recurrence of leukaemia. Undesirable effects of the donated immune cells on the intestines, skin or other organs of the recipients are also being investigated. The aim here is to prevent or at least minimise these effects.