The Integrated Research and Treatment Center (IFB) AdiposityDiseases in Leipzig receives further funding of 24 million Euros until 2020
The Center of the University Hospital and Medical Faculty Leipzig receives funding for another five-year period from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Its continued existence until 2020 strengthens the Leipzig research focus on civilization and metabolic diseases.
The IFB, founded in 2010, is investigating and treating severe obesity and its secondary diseases in children, adolescents, and adults. Due to the worldwide increase in obesity further exploration of its causes, prevention and treatmentis particularly important.
Around 50 scientists and physicians are working for the IFB interdisciplinarily and in close cooperation with the various university hospitals and institutes. Due to the combination of basic- and patient-related research and the treatment of obese patients, scientific findings can faster be incorporated into the therapies of obesity. At the same time, new scientific questions can be derived from the clinical treatment. Prof. Michael Stumvoll, scientific director of the IFB, underlines: "The additional funding demonstrates the excellence and relevance of our obesity research. The approach to combine interdisciplinary research and the rapy closely has been confirmed."
Due to the long standing expertise in the research of overweight and lifestyle diseases, Leipzig is the optimal scientific location the IFB research. In addition to the IFB, the university has a Collaborative Research Centre"Mechanisms of obesity", the nation wide largest biobank of adipose tissue,and the data from the Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases(LIFE). Inthe first five years the IFB research has led to over 220 scientific publications, inter alia with important insights to pathogenic disorders in adipose tissue as well as genetic, neural,and psycho social influences on eating habits and weight.
Regionally, nationally, and internationally the IFB has accomplished to continuously expand his scientific network. The centeris cooperating with the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, the German Center for Diabetes Research in Munich, the Paris Institute of Heart Metabolism and Nutrition (ICAN) and the Canadian Obesity Network. "For the next few years our particular challenges are to consolidate the research structures established and to advance the research of new therapy approaches inclinical studies," so Stumvoll.
Forward-looking in the treatment of obesity was the development of a comprehensive treatment program - the“Leipzig Obesity-Management”. The health insurer AOK PLUS Saxony-Thuringia and the University Hospital Leipzig, supported by the IFB, signed a Germany-wide unique agreement about the integrated healthcare of obese patients. Information on these treatment options and therapy-programs are offered by the obesity outpatient clinics for children and youths, and for adults at the University Hospital Leipzig.
The IFB AdiposityDiseases in Leipzig is one of eight integrated research and treatment centers in Germany, each dedicated to a socially relevant disease. The IFBs are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.