Site Tübingen

In the laboratories of the DZNE Tübingen, scientists investigate the causes and mechanisms of nerve diseases at the molecular, genetic, and cellular levels. Special attention is given to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and rare movement disorders such as ataxias.

As a result, the Tübingen experts are studying nerve-damaging inflammatory processes in the brain as well as hereditary factors that can play an important role in neurodegenerative diseases, as some gene variants can increase the risk of disease or even directly trigger a disease, while other variants protect against it. At the DZNE Tübingen, researchers therefore hope to discover such risk and protection factors in order to pave the way for new measures in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Through human clinical studies, scientists at the DZNE in Tübingen are also working on a better method for early detection of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ataxias, and on new therapeutic measures. To this end, they are examining the research participants to find biomarkers, which are measurable biological indicators (in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid, for example) that can be used to detect a disease and assess how it will progress. Clinical research in Tübingen is also dedicated to the rare, hereditary form of Parkinson’s disease.