LMU opens new building for diagnostics and translational research.

The new facility of the Max von Pettenkofer Institute will facilitate the prevention and more efficient treatment of infectious diseases.

Translating excellent research findings from microbiology and virology into clinical diagnostics is an important step toward faster, more effective treatment and prevention of disease spread. To this end, LMU is opening the new Center for Diagnostics and Translational Research at the Max von Pettenkofer Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology.

Markus Blume, Bavaria’s Minister of State for Science and the Arts: “This new building costing 36 million euros is a beacon of infection medicine at LMU and a real flagship for Bavaria as a location for science. The experience we’ve gained in recent years has shown us that those who are able to understand pathogens quickly can save lives. With the DIAG building, we’ve created a place where virology, microbiology and clinical practice can all work together very closely. We’ve established the best conditions for diagnostics and clinical research – very much reflecting DIAG’s guiding motto: from the test tube to saving lives. What’s clear is that pandemics don’t tell us when they’ll be arriving, but we can prepare. Resilience is established by following strategic paths. DIAG very much reflects this vision.”

For Bavarian Construction Minister Christian Bernreiter, the key handover on 10 June was especially gratifying: “As the state building department, we do everything in our power to create the requisite infrastructure for this University of Excellence. The challenge for Munich State Building Authority 2 was to meet the highest standards, such as the S3 laboratory with the highest biosafety level for the diagnostics of highly contagious pathogens, while also creating the necessary adaptability for other laboratory uses in the future. The result is a building that is robust, flexible, and climate-friendly in equal measure. I would like to thank everyone involved for the outstanding work. Also, a big thanks to the staff for their patience over the past weeks and months!”

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Matthias H. Tschöp, President of LMU: “The integration of diagnostics, translational research, and teaching in medical microbiology and virology at the highest level – combined with state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure, high-containment laboratories, and AI-supported diagnostics – provides optimal conditions for identifying infectious diseases more rapidly, understanding them more thoroughly, and combating them more effectively. In this way, we can translate new scientific insights into clinical practice even more efficiently and further improve patient care. For a University of Excellence, a building like this represents far more than a new facility: it is a strategic hub for scientific innovation, medical preparedness, and healthcare resilience, as well as academic education at the highest international standard.”

Prof. Dr. med. Sebastian Suerbaum, Chair of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at LMU’s Max von Pettenkofer Institute: “I’m delighted with the inauguration of this new Max von Pettenkofer Institute building on the LMU University Hospital campus in Großhadern. It offers all employees of the Max von Pettenkofer Institute – doctors, scientists, and technical staff – optimal conditions for our work in infectious disease diagnostics and patient-oriented translational research, and provides us with the best possible framework for accelerated interdisciplinary diagnostics and direct communication and discussion of the results with the treating physicians. We are very grateful to the Free State of Bavaria and all the teams involved in the planning and construction of this building for bringing it to fruition in a relatively short period of time.”

Optimal infrastructure for modern diagnostics

The new building provides optimal conditions for identifying infectious agents using all modern diagnostic techniques in bacteriology, virology, mycology, and parasitology. Key features include a large laboratory housing a lab automation line for culture-based microbiology.

A large laboratory space was built around this installation to enable streamlined workflows – from supplying the automated line with reagents and agar plates, to loading patient samples, to technical and medical validation and quality control. Equally, the design accommodates optimized IT infrastructure to handle the large volumes of data generated, including the AI-supported analysis of results. The laboratories are connected to key hubs in the hospital via a state-of-the-art pneumatic tube system. Samples taken in the operating theater, for example, can thus reach the laboratory in minutes.

Another highlight is a high-containment laboratory operating at biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) and built to the latest standards. This level of safety is required for tuberculosis and HIV diagnostics, for instance, to afford optimal protection to staff and the environment.

For the storage of patient samples and bacterial and viral isolates, the facility includes a biobank with liquid nitrogen cryopreservation and -80°C freezers. Another feature is a vaccination hub with two treatment rooms and a waiting area.

Medical research and care

Teams totaling 20 physicians and academics and 70 technical personnel and auxiliary staff will be working in the new building, supported by IT technicians and other professionals. The central location of the building also facilitates the daily rounds of medical teams from the Max von Pettenkofer Institute on LMU University Hospital wards for problem patients with infectious diseases.

In addition to housing microbiological and virological diagnostics in two accredited laboratory areas as well as medical consulting services, the new building will be home to the two National Reference Centers located at the Max von Pettenkofer Institute: the center for Helicobacter pylori – the leading infectious carcinogen – and the center for retroviruses, particularly HIV.

The Max von Pettenkofer Institute has attained a leading position in these two areas through innovative diagnostics and its internationally recognized research successes. Translational research projects at the institute are funded, among others, by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the newly established Bavarian Centre for Preventive Infection Medicine (BZI).