Inflammation and Immunity

The generation of a functional immune system is a complex process that requires multiple control mechanisms to ensure immunity against life-threatening infectious diseases and cancer and non-responsiveness or tolerance to innocuous self-antigens thereby preventing the development of autoimmunity, allergy and other inflammatory diseases. This ensures the integrity of the mammalian organism. Research in the area of Inflammation and Immunity is therefore a worldwide medical need since it will provide new insights into pathogenesis and, thus, form the basis for new therapeutic strategies for diseases such as allergy, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes mellitus and organ rejection. The proposed "Inflammation and Immunity" (IAI) Doctoral Program integrates basic, applied and clinical sciences to provide comprehensive and thorough up-to-date research training in these important fields aiming at facilitating interdisciplinary and translational research. Most of the groups are part of two recently established Special Research Programs (SFB- F18: "Molecular and immunological strategies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of type I allergies"; SFB- F23: "Mechanisms of establishment and maintenance of immunological tolerance") and are associated to the two Medical University of Vienna (MUW) graduate courses "Immunology" and "Cellular and Molecular Elements of the Skin". It is the goal of the IAI Doctoral Program to provide an unifying educational excellence platform for all these existing programs (1) to establish an international PhD Program at the Medical University of Vienna; (2) to attract highly qualified graduate students selected among applicants from all over the world; (3) to offer them the opportunity to work on high profile scientific projects at the forefront of modern biology in 13 research groups with excellent scientific competence; (4) to provide them with a creative and excellent environment for research and educational training in modern biology; (5) to prepare them for a successful scientific career in basic and/or applied research. The strong cluster of researchers working in the field of IAI at the MUW provides the infrastructure, the scientific critical mass and the excellent and stimulating research and training environment to ensure the success of this new Doctoral Program. A long term goal of our endeavor is to apply the same competitive selection criteria for the recruitment of graduate students funded by other external sources. This will further strengthen the formation of a dynamically growing center of excellence in European Research in the field of IAI.