Established | 1970 |
---|---|
Research type | Basic research (non-clinical) |
Field of research |
|
Director | Dirk Schübeler |
Location | Basel, Switzerland |
Affiliations | University of Basel |
Website | www |
The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) is a biomedical research institute founded in 1970. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the FMI is affiliated with the University of Basel and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). It is named after Friedrich Miescher. As of 2021 [update] , the FMI has around 340 collaborators, of which 20 are research group leaders, over 80 are postdoctoral collaborators and over 80 are postgraduate students participating in the FMI International PhD Program. The FMI is directed by Dirk Schübeler.
The FMI is member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading life sciences research centres in Europe. [1]
The FMI is devoted to the pursuit of fundamental biomedical research. Areas of research are neurobiology, genome regulation, and multicellular systems.
Research is carried out in 20 independent but highly interactive[ citation needed ] research groups. In addition, several cutting-edge technology platforms – including microscopy & imaging, computational biology, functional genomics, proteomics, structural biology and more – support the research activities. [ citation needed ]
From 2014 to 2019, the FMI had the highest success rate for ERC grant applications of all European institutions. [2]
The FMI is an affiliated institute of the University of Basel. [14] It provides biomedical research and career training for its 80–100 PhD students at a time. FMI selects its highly international student body during a twice-yearly interview-based selection program. [15] Most FMI group leaders have adjunct or full professorships at the University of Basel in the Natural Sciences Faculty. In particular, the FMI participates actively in the teaching program of the Biozentrum of the University of Basel.
The FMI also offers training in biomedical research to postdoctoral fellows. It was designated by a survey of The Scientist in 2012, as the "best place for postdoctoral training" outside of the US. [16] [17]
A goal of the FMI is the patenting of its discoveries and implementation of its basic research into pharmaceutical development. [18]
The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research is named after the Basel scientist Friedrich Miescher who discovered nucleic acids in the mid-19th century.
The FMI was founded in 1970, a hundred years after Miescher's discovery, as a collaborative effort of two Basel-based pharmaceutical companies, Ciba Aktiengesellschaft and J. R. Geigy Ltd. [19] The founding charter describes the aims of the institute as to "pursue and promote basic research in the fields of biochemistry and medicine..." and "...to provide young scientists from all over the world with an opportunity to participate in scientific research." [20] The Founding Director was Professor Hubert Bloch (died 1974) who had been Director of Research at Ciba Aktiengesellschaft, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Basel. He was an expert in tuberculosis [21] [22] and was also instrumental in the founding of the Institut Suisse pour les Recherches Experimentales sur la Cancer (ISREC), Epalinges, Switzerland. Between 1997 and 2012, the FMI was part of the Novartis Research Foundation. [23] Since 2012 the FMI is an independent foundation. [24]
List of the successive directors of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research:
The Friedrich Miescher Award is Switzerland's highest honor for up-and-coming biochemical researchers. The award is granted every year by the Swiss Society for Biochemistry [25] to the best scientific contribution in this field. Prize winners must be under 40 and must either be Swiss citizens or have conducted the prize-winning research in this country. The award was instituted in 1970, proposed and donated by the FMI. It is named after the Basel scientist who discovered DNA, Friedrich Miescher.
Johannes Friedrich Miescher was a Swiss physician and biologist. He was the first scientist to isolate nucleic acid in 1869. Miescher also identified protamine and made several other discoveries.
The University of Basel is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universities. The university is traditionally counted among the leading institutions of higher learning in the country.
The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland.
Chemical biology is a scientific discipline between the fields of chemistry and biology. The discipline involves the application of chemical techniques, analysis, and often small molecules produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and manipulation of biological systems. Although often confused with biochemistry, which studies the chemistry of biomolecules and regulation of biochemical pathways within and between cells, chemical biology remains distinct by focusing on the application of chemical tools to address biological questions.
The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), also referred to as the mechanistic target of rapamycin, and sometimes called FK506-binding protein 12-rapamycin-associated protein 1 (FRAP1), is a kinase that in humans is encoded by the MTOR gene. mTOR is a member of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinase family of protein kinases.
The Basel Institute for Immunology (BII) was founded in 1969 as a basic research institute in immunology located at 487 Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, Switzerland on the Rhine River down the street from the main Hoffmann-La Roche campus near the Swiss-German border. The institute opened its doors in 1971.
Science and technology in Switzerland play an important role in the Swiss economy, which has very few natural resources that are available in the country. The Swiss National Science Foundation, mandated by the Federal government, is the most important institute for promoting scientific research.
Brian Arthur Hemmings FRS is a British biochemist, and Senior Group Leader, at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000.
mTOR inhibitors are a class of drugs used to treat several human diseases, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegeneration. They function by inhibiting the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which is a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase that belongs to the family of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) related kinases (PIKKs). mTOR regulates cellular metabolism, growth, and proliferation by forming and signaling through two protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2. The most established mTOR inhibitors are so-called rapalogs, which have shown tumor responses in clinical trials against various tumor types.
Silvia Arber is a Swiss neurobiologist. She teaches and researches at both the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel Switzerland.
Barbara HohnForMemRS is an Austrian molecular biologist, particularly known for her research into the Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
Michael Nip Hall is an American-Swiss molecular biologist and professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He discovered TOR, a protein central for regulating cell growth.
Jean Pieters is a Dutch biochemist and Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Susan M. Gasser is a Swiss molecular biologist. From 2004 to 2019 she was the director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, where she also led a research group from 2004 until 2021. She was in parallel professor of molecular biology at the University of Basel until April 2021. Since January 2021, Susan Gasser is director of the ISREC Foundation, which supports translational cancer research. She is also professor invité at the University of Lausanne in the department of fundamental microbiology. She is an expert in quantitative biology and studies epigenetic inheritance and genome stability. Recipient of multiple swiss and European awards, she was named member of the US Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann was a Swiss biochemist and cell biologist working on interactions in the extracellular matrix.
Isabelle M. Mansuy is a professor in neuroepigenetics in the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich and the Department of Health Science and Technology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. She is known for her work on the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance in relation to childhood trauma.
Dirk Schübeler is a German researcher, Director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) and professor at the University of Basel. He is an expert in gene regulation.
Collin Yvès Ewald is a Swiss scientist investigating the molecular mechanisms of healthy aging. He is a molecular biologist and a professor at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Laboratory of Extracellular Matrix Regeneration. His research focuses on the remodeling of the extracellular matrix during aging and upon longevity interventions.
Nicolas H. Thomä is a German researcher, full professor at the EPFL School of Life Sciences and Director of the Paternot Chair for Cancer Research in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a biochemist and structural biologist and a leading researcher in the fields of ubiquitin ligase biology and DNA repair.
Prisca Liberali is an Italian chemist who is a senior group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research. Her research takes a systems biology approach to understand the behaviour of multi-cellular systems. She was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal and EMBO Membership in 2022.