Saarbrücken, March 18, 2024 - The inaugural meeting of the PharmaScienceHub took place on March 18. Researchers from computer science, medicine and life sciences as well as representatives from the pharmaceutical industry came together in the aula of Saarland University to jointly shape the work program of the interdisciplinary collaboration platform. The PharmaScienceHub was founded in summer 2023 between Saarland University and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in order to pool capacities in the field of drug research in Saarland.
To develop novel and innovative medicines efficiently, academic research and industry must work closely together and cross disciplinary boundaries. With this in mind, the PharmaScienceHub was founded in June 2023 as an interdisciplinary collaboration platform between Saarland University and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). Its aim is to bring together existing local capacities in the field of drug development and to interact even more closely with the pharmaceutical industry in order to quickly and efficiently transfer results from the laboratory to clinical application.
That the University and HIPS are on the right track with their collaborative approach is also shown by the successful draft proposal for the nextAID³ cluster of excellence, for which the researchers are now invited to submit a full proposal as part of the Excellence Strategy. The latter includes the PharmaScienceHub as a central element. In addition, the collaboration platform already played a vital role in the appointment of numerous professors at the university and HIPS during its development phase, as well as the successful application for the TALENTS graduate school.
At the inaugural meeting on March 18, over 60 participants from industry and research discussed measures and joint projects that will lay the foundation for collaboration in the coming years. In his welcoming address, Saarland's Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digital Affairs and Energy, Jürgen Barke, emphasized the relevance of the PharmaScienceHub for Saarland's economic development: "The close collaboration between the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland and Saarland University has enormous potential for top-level international drug research. The entire location can benefit from this. The PharmaScienceHub fits perfectly into Saarland's innovation strategy, with which we are further strengthening the exchange between research and industry."
University President Manfred Schmitt is convinced that the close collaboration between the university and its partners will significantly advance drug research in Saarland in the coming years: "With the help of the PharmaScienceHub collaboration platform, the university will be able to further strengthen its NanoBioMed focus. The common goal is to use a highly interdisciplinary approach as well as AI support to develop new active ingredients and optimize them for use in humans."
