Team:Heidelberg/Support

Physicist Dr. h.c. Klaus Tschira established the Klaus Tschira Foundation in 1995 as a not-for-profit organization designed to support research in informatics, the natural sciences, and mathematics, as well as promotion of public understanding in these sciences. Klaus Tschira’s commitment to this objective was honored in 1999 with the „Deutscher Stifterpreis” by the National Association of German Foundations. The home of the Foundation is the Villa Bosch in Heidelberg, the former residence of Nobel Prize laureate for chemistry Carl Bosch (1874–1940). Klaus Tschira is a co-founder of the SAP AG in Walldorf, one of the world’s leading companies in the software industry. After many years on the board of directors, Klaus Tschira is now a member of the company’s supervisory board.

SVA is one of Germany's leading system integrators in the field of DataCenter infrastructure. The entrepreneurial goal of SVA is the combination of high-quality IT products of the respective companies with the project know-how and the flexibility of SVA in order to achieve optimal solutions for the customers. Core issues of the company, in addition to high availability architectures and high performance computing, highly scalable SAN architecture, data backup and disaster recovery as well as virtualization technologies in server and SAN environments.

LANGE + PFLANZ Werbeagentur Gmbh (advertising agency) has been a specialist for Marketing and Design since 1992. Our focus covers the fields of financial , corporate and strategic communication. As an owner-operated communication company we offer individual and enduring communication solutions for variable media platforms.

Beckman Coulter, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of biomedical testing instrument systems, tests and supplies that simplify and automate laboratory processes. Spanning the biomedical testing continuum—from pioneering medical research and clinical trials to laboratory diagnostics and point-of-care testing—Beckman Coulter's 200,000 installed systems provide essential biomedical information to enhance health care around the world.

Chroma Technology Corp. is a manufacturer of interference filters for the ultra-violet, visible and near-infrared portions of the spectrum, including bandpass, multiple bandpass, and long and short pass filters, as well as beamsplitters, dichroic mirrors and laser rejection filters. We specialize in precision spectral control, including extra high signal-to-noise ratio filters and those with rapid cut-on and cut-off profiles. The manufacturing process involves precisely depositing, in a vacuum, extremely thin layers of two or more materials on a glass or similarly transparent substrate.

febit develops, produces and markets flexible automated solutions for enabling biochip applications in Life Sciences. febit’s product portfolio includes various instruments, optimized assays and bioanalytical services, complemented by bioinformatics software and consulting. The key applications are HybSelect, febit’s innovative DNA capture method for Next-Generation-Sequencing, and hands-off, amplification free microRNA profiling. Both are taking advantage of the advanced microfluidics of the patented Geniom Biochip to offer the highest degree of automation, flexibility and efficiency available.

Amnis designs, manufactures and markets leading cell imaging instrumentation for the research and clinical markets. The Company’s flagship product is the ImageStream system, which combines the speed and sensitivity of flow cytometry with the power of high resolution digital microscopy. As the only technology capable of imaging cells at high speed directly in bodily fluids, ImageStream enables unique, non-invasive diagnostic applications. These applications include residual disease detection via high throughput FISH, circulating endothelial cell and tumor cell analysis, and advanced automated hematology based on multi-color phenotyping combined with histochemical staining.

Graffinity is the premier partner for fragment based drug discovery and lead development of small molecule pharmaceuticals. Graffinity has built a unique approach which includes chemical microarrays, fragment screening, SPR label-free imaging of protein-ligand interactions, computational chemistry and lead discovery. The technology platform offers a new drug discovery paradigm for the rapid conversion of genomic information into novel, high quality leads and drug candidates. Graffinity applies this technology in established high-profile collaborations with leading Pharma and Biotech companies.

Who could say to understand the brilliance of music? In fact it is as complex and phenomenal as life! Denis Noble (Oxford) has written a whole book, The Music of Life, about this similarity. And with systems biology a whole new discipline has been dedicated to the harmony of biological parts. As instrument builders have crafted for centuries filigree mechanics, iGEM will be the instrument to play the artistic notes of biology. The Pianohaus Keienburg is therefore a welcome companion on our virtuosic tour through the world of synthetic biology. And besides, did you know that also Albert Einstein was an apprehended violinist and Heisenberg a recognized pianist? They were!

Focused on patients’ needs, sanofi-aventis offers a range of essential healthcare assets, including a broad-based product portfolio in the areas of prescription medicines, generics, consumer health care and animal health. The world leader in vaccines shows a worldwide presence across both traditional and emerging markets. Sanofi-aventis' ambition: to become a diversified global healthcare leader.

The future since 1386
Heidelberg University is one of the top-ranking locations in the world of international science and scholarship. As Germany's oldest seat of higher learning it can look back on a tradition for which it is envied by many other universities, not only in Germany. But while its six-hundred-year history is a source of justified pride, it would be foolish indeed to rest on the laurels of the past. Accordingly, the University is intent on playing an active role in shaping the future, both by engaging in innovative research and by educating the decision-makers of tomorrow.

The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is the largest biomedical research institute in Germany and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers. More than 2,000 staff members, including 850 scientists, are investigating the mechanisms of cancer and are working to identify cancer risk factors. They provide the foundations for developing novel approaches in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. In addition, the staff of the Cancer Information Service (KID) offers information about the widespread disease of cancer for patients, their families, and the general public.

In addition to the experimental acquisition of biological data and their analysis with bio-statistical and bio-computational methods, the modelling and simulation of these processes as well as their validation have become more important than ever before. For small systems such as single molecules and small complexes, molecular models have already provided significant insights leading not only to a better understanding of interactions, but also to the rational design of new drugs. For more complex systems (large molecular complexes, cells, organs and populations), such analysis is only preliminary. On this basis, the University of Heidelberg has established the research network for the "Quantitative Analysis of Molecular and Cellular Biological Systems (BIOQUANT)" which integrates research groups from different disciplines and help them to focus on these research tasks.