Universitat zu Köln

The University of Cologne is one of the oldest and biggest universities in Germany. It was founded in 1388 and has 6 Faculties: Medicine, Mathematics and Sciences, Human Sciences, Humanities, Law, Economy and Social Sciences. The University of Cologne is an internationally recognized center for its excellence in research and education. The life sciences including Medicine and Biology constitute a strong focus of the University of Cologne both in basic and clinical research. The University of Cologne has recently created the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, which is a joint initiative of the Medical and Biology faculties forming an interface promoting cooperation between basic and clinical researchers in biomedical research.

The Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne has an excellent track record in basic research in biology. The institute currently consists of 19 independent laboratories (6 full professors, 4 assistant professors, and 9 group leaders), with a common theme in using genetics to study complex biological processes. The institute also hosts the Cologne Center for Genomics, a joint center of the faculties of Medicine and Biology facilitating large genomics projects. Researchers at the Institute for Genetics use a variety of model organisms, including mice, flies, fish, yeast and bacteria, for research in the areas of inflammation and innate immunity, cancer, metabolic diseases, mitochondrial function, embryonic development, population genetics and neurobiology. The institute has a long tradition in using “state of the art” gene targeting technology in mice. The technique of Cre recombinase-assisted ‘conditional’ gene manipulation in the mouse was pioneered at the Institute for Genetics by the group of Klaus Rajewsky. The institute has state of the art facilities for the generation, maintenance and analysis of genetically modified mice and is fully equipped for experiments in genomics, molecular biology, biochemistry and proteomics and optical imaging.