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.

With support from the FWF doc.funds program "Cellular Basis of Diseases - Molecular Control of Metabolism and Inflammation" (DOC82), the Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI) further developed the Innsbruck PhD School for Biomedical Sciences into a highly interdisciplinary research and training environment that bridges basic biomedical research and clinical science. The overarching aim of DOC82 was to advance understanding of cellular mechanisms underlying human disease and to translate these insights - on the long run - into improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Research within the program focused specifically on how metabolic signaling pathways regulate nutrient transport in key organs such as the gastrointestinal tract and the liver, and how these pathways intersect with immune cell function and reprogramming. Addressing these complex questions required close collaboration between molecular biologists, clinicians, and physician scientists. A defining feature of DOC82 was its integrated training concept. Each PhD project was supervised by a tandem team consisting of a basic researcher and a physician scientist, ensuring that doctoral candidates were exposed to both fundamental mechanisms and clinical relevance. This structure fostered genuine interdisciplinary collaboration and enabled students to benefit from complementary expertise across disciplines. Beyond individual research projects, the program emphasized a collaborative research culture and structured PhD training. To our knowledge, this integrated tandem-supervision model was the first of its kind in Austria and represents an innovative approach to doctoral education. Overall, DOC82 successfully strengthened the interface between basic and clinical research at MUI. The tandem supervision concept has since been adopted in other doc.funds applications at the university and elsewhere. Importantly, DOC82it also led to the establishment of a new PhD program at MUI, "Molecular and Cellular Basis of Diseases," which unified several smaller PhD programs and uses DOC82 as a best-practice model to promote the mutual benefits of basic and clinical research in PhD training.