Cellular Basis of Diseases: Molecular Control of Metabolism and Inflammation

App. 30.000.000.000.000 (30 trillion) cells form the human body. In healthy individuals these cells work together and maintain organismal function. While it is clear that defects in cellular functions are the basis for most diseases, the underlying molecular defects are poorly understood and it is unclear how they contribute to disease. At the Medical University of Innsbruck, it is our goal to develop an interdisciplinary PhD program that addresses these questions and integrates hypothesis driven basic research with clinical research. Our major research goals are to understand cellular mechanisms of disease with a particular emphasis on (i) metabolic signaling pathways in the gastrointestinal tract and in the liver and (ii) how these pathways intersect with the reprogramming of immune cells. Our major training goals are (i) to select and mentor PhD students who are driven by curiosity and enjoy the challenge of solving complex scientific questions with passion and motivation and (ii) to generate an exciting and collaborative research environment that will educate young scientists to make discoveries that help to better understand and to finally treat diseases. Therefore, we have generated a new curriculum, that is specifically tailored to meet these goals. Each PhD project is to be guided by a tandem supervisor team always consisting of one physician scientist and one basic researcher. The organization into such research teams will result in joint goals with true interdisciplinary collaborations. Our students will be encouraged to reach out beyond their own project and experience the benefits of the collaborative attitude across our PhD program. This setup is unique in Austria. We expect that it will stimulate out of the box thinking rather than narrow focused specialization and shall prepare our PhD students for competitive positions as future scientific leaders at the international level.