Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich

The Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPSM) is a cluster of excellence in sciences located in Munich. It is an association of research groups of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich, the Helmholtz Center Munich, and the Max Planck Institutes of biochemistry and neurobiology in Martinsried. Research at the center expands from isolated proteins up to proteins in living organisms applying methods of biophysics, biochemistry, medicine, and biology.
Goals.
Proteins 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 (e.g. zebra fish, "Drosophilidae", "Caenorhabditis elegans" or "escherichia coli" bacteries), especially with regard to interactions, structural complexities (e.g. protein folding, structures of protein complexes, interactions between proteins and nucleic acids, and manipulation of protein functions) 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 (A-F) 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 (principal and associate investigators) 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 (see Events and Conferences) are part of the job of the cluster CEO, who further takes care of applications and publicity work.
Gender Support Program.
Female scientists of CIPSM are supported by a program called AFF ("Ausschuss für Familien- und Frauenförderung"; committee for family and gender support). 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.
Endowment.
Financial endorsements of CIPSM are provided by the Federal Republic of Germany, the states of Germany and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in the course of the German Universities Excellence Initiative and distributed orientated on demand.
Individual financial support of scientists of the cluster includes project-related funding of PhD and Postdoc positions, procurement of larger tools, financial support of events and conferences, and gender support.
Research highlights and achievements.
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:
Furthermore, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the cooperation "experimental and theoretical methods for dissecting the dynamics of epigenetic gene silencing in living cells" between the CIPSM groups Leonhardt and Schotta and the University of Heidelberg.
Events and conferences.
Furthermore, the CIPSM cluster organized
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.
External links.
[[Category:Medical research institutes in Germany]]
[[Category:Education in Munich]]
[[Category:Culture in Munich]]
[[Category:Medical and health organisations based in Bavaria]]
[[Category:Organisations based in Munich]]