s are as biological macromolecules a cornerstone of life. However, their functional importance and structural effects are not yet fully understood in every detail. Investigation of isolated proteins up to living organisms, especially with regard to interactions, structural complexities and neuro-degenerative diseases, promises to furnish basic knowledge of these macromolecules. This very knowledge could contribute to advances in biomedicine and biotechnologies.
Organization
The cluster is divided into six main areas of research.
Each research area is being represented by two coordinators who, in cooperation with the executive board, decide on the appointment of new professorships and elect the executive board of four researchers and one member responsible for family and [|gender support]. The main responsibilities of the board members are research, teaching and support of junior academic staff. The board members represent the interests of the cluster towards the directorate of the respective university. The speaker of the board and his deputy take special care of the supervision and recruitment of junior professorships. Research group leaders meet annually to decide on budget allocation. Leading the research group still is the individual task of the research group leader at own responsibility. Regular meetings between group leaders and coordinators ensure efficient guidance of the cluster. The speaker represents the cluster and thus negotiates with the universities participating in the cluster of excellence on matters like teaching as well as on financial and personal issues. Administration and supervision of financial endorsements of each fiscal year, personal recruitment, management of all cluster issues, procurement of larger tools, and organizing activities such as symposia, conferences and workshops are part of the job of the cluster CEO, who further takes care of applications and publicity work.
Female scientists of CIPSM are supported by a program called AFF. The program was created to get more researchers with children and habilitated females into professorships or leading positions. The committee is being led by a member of the board who is especially responsible for family and gender support. The support program is intended to counter barriers in the academic career resulting from parental leave. For this purpose, junior researchers with child or children can be allocated a technical assistant for support of their research. Furthermore, a domestic aid can be granted on request. For researchers' children up to the age of three years, CIPSM runs its own day nursery. Additionally, a mentoring program was created to support successful employment of female scientists and symposia with high ranking female scientists should give researchers opportunities to obtain insight into careers, gain experiences and enhance scientific interaction.
The CIPSM cluster has been elected landmark in the German "country of ideas" initiative honoring the achievements of CIPSM researchers, who have been awarded several prizes for their work conducted with CIPSM:
Elena Conti received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2008 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for "fundamentally new knowledge of intracellular RNA transport and of RNA metabolism" together with Elisa Izaurralde of Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology Tübingen.
Stephan Sieber and Thomas Böttcher have been rewarded the Innovationspreis der BioRegionen in Deutschland 2008 for their research on beta-lactones for the treatment of diseases, which are resistant to common antibiotics.
Horst Kessler has been awarded the Josef Rudinger Award of the European Peptide Society for his contributions to peptide chemistry in 2008.
Heinrich Leonhardt has received the Binder Innovation Award for the development of fluorescent antigen-bonding nanobodies, which can be expressed in living cells, in 2008.
Graduate School Life Science Munich : An international support program for extraordinary Diploma or Master absolvents in the field of anthropology, biochemistry, cellbiology, ecology, evolution, genetics, microbiology, plant sciences, systematics, and zoology including lectures, seminars and workshops.
CIPSM-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum : An annual meeting on a CIPSM initiative for interdisciplinary exchange between PhD students and Postdocs of Harvard University and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
CIPSM gala in the Deutsches Museum on May 4, 2009 in course of the "country of ideas" initiative with lectures about current highlights of the cluster's protein research.
Elmau Conference 2008 and Monastery Irsee Conference 2009: Conferences on current topics in protein research in cooperation with Bayer Schering Pharma AG.
CIPSM lecture of Prof. Martina Havenith in course of the Gender Support Program.
Alpenforum 2009: CIPSM has been supporting the "Alpenforum" of the GDCh young scientists Munich since 2008. The forum is held annually in Oberammergau to give students and doctorands of chemistry and related sciences the chance to collect information on possible careers in chemistry, to get into contact with companies and to get to know interesting employers.
FRAU 2.0 "frau & mutter & wissenschaftlerin wie geht das überhaupt?" : information event for students of sciences, especially chemistry, biology and pharmacy, on possible careers and perspectives for female scientists at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in course of the Gender Support Program.
CIPSM Trainees' Minisymposium: Lecture and discussion event at the Technical University of Munich on trends and novel developments in protein sciences.
Synthesefest: lecture event at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich on organic chemistry with international lecturers of science and industry.
in course of the lecture series „Innovation Management and Global Challenges“, Dr. Wolfang Plischke, member of the Bayer AGboard of management, has been invited to lecture and thus give master and PhD students insight into how their research might impact on the chemical industry.
Furthermore, the CIPSM cluster organized
the Chromatin Assembly and Inheritance of Functional States, 2nd Transregio 5 Symposium,
the European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research "COST Meeting",
the EMBO Workshop "Gene Transduction in Yeast",
the 16th Lecture Conference ORCHEM 2008 in cooperation with the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker and the Liebig-Vereinigung für Chemie,
the 4th International Conference on the Hsp90 Chaperone Machine''.
Science Comment
The project Science Comment has been established in 2009 to comment objectively on and to discuss publications in well reputed scientific journals of chemistry, biology, pharmacy and medicine. This internet forum was intended to facilitate international communication of research results. The registered user can, referring to a certain publication, criticise or discuss this publication in public. Science Comment serves its purpose as data base for the quality assessment of a publicized result prior to its application. The possibility to check the feasibility of the result saves the users' time and resources.
