New Ludwig Boltzmann Institutes at MedUni Vienna and CeMM

(Vienna, 21 October 2015) – Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG) establishes two new Ludwig Boltzmann Institutes (LBI). During 2016 the LBI for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases will start work at CeMM and the LBI for Applied Diagnostics will start work at the Medical University of Vienna.
The next seven years of research programs will be run at the institutes by LBG together with partner consortia. These consortia are made up of scientific and user organizations. The respective research projects are being 60% funded by LBG in its capacity as the sponsoring organization and the partner organizations are providing the remaining 40% of the funding. More than one million euros per annum are available for each institute.

Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Applied Diagnostics
The scientific focus of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Applied Diagnostics (LBI AD) is innovative and improved cancer diagnosis, which allows the optimum choice of treatment and enables the success of the treatment to be estimated at the earliest possible stage. By using transdisciplinary research approaches, the fields of nuclear medicine and molecular pathology will directly implement common concepts in clinical trials. LBI AD plans to develop new biomarkers to facilitate non-invasive, in-vivo pathology using imaging techniques and blood-based analyses. Due to the close involvement of experts from the fields of clinical pharmacology, oncology, urology and health economics, it will be possible to tailor these new diagnostic methods to the needs of the health system, thereby making them available to it. The main site is the Clinical Department for Nuclear Medicine of the University Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine of MedUni Vienna.

The director is Markus Mitterhauser of the University Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. "For about two years now we have worked intensively on implementing a combination of molecular imaging from nuclear medicine and molecular diagnostics from pathology. Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft has provided us with the necessary vehicle for realizing our concept of an Institute for Applied Diagnostics. We hope that our work will lead to the rapid and efficient implementation of personalized cancer treatment in Austria."

Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI RUD)
Rare diseases are anything but rare, if you consider the more than 7,000 different types as a whole. Approximately 400,000 people in Austria are affected by such diseases and, in some cases, the cause of the disease is not even known (undiagnosed diseases). The research focus of LBI RUD will be the decoding of rare haematopoietic, immune system and nervous system disorders – this work will not only form the basis for developing personalized therapeutic approaches for those directly affected but will also provide new, unique insights into human biology. By harnessing the expertise of its partner organizations, LBI RUD aims to establish a coordinated research program that includes and considers not only scientific aspects but also social, ethical and economic aspects.

The Institute is being headed up by Kaan Boztug of the University Department of Paediatrics at MedUni Vienna and researcher at CeMM (Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences): "What I particularly like about the LBG concept is the potential for long-term and focused collaboration between several different institutions. We want to develop tailor-made diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for rare and undiagnosed diseases. In the medium term Vienna is destined to become a hotspot for precision medicine."

Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft
Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG) is Austria's independent research incubator with the emphasis on Health Sciences and it operates 18 research institutes and research clusters with around 600 employees. In accordance with its motto “Research for people”, LBG aims to address research topics that are relevant to society.