Representatives of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin, together with political representatives, today celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony for two buildings for top-level research at the Charité Campus Virchow-Klinikum. Next to the Charité's “Berlin Center for Advanced Therapies” (BeCAT), the research building “The Simulated Human” (Si-M) is under construction as part of the strategic partnership between Charité and TU Berlin. As a project of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA), Si-M contributes to the further definition of the joint research environment and thus to the strengthening of Berlin hub of research.

At Si-M, researchers at the interface of technology and medicine are investigating the simulation of human organ functions – without experimenting on animals. A combination of engineering and medical expertise is designed to replicate the complexity of human organs and tissues. The aim is to improve the understanding of diseases and to enable new therapeutic approaches.

“The Si-M has been included in the Berlin University Alliance as a model for the development of further multi-institutional and cross-disciplinary research infrastructures. In this way, we are establishing a new stimulating research campus at Seestrasse, where interdisciplinary research is conducted across institutional boundaries for the benefit of patients,” says Prof. Dr. Axel R. Pries, Dean of Charité and member of the Executive Board of the BUA. “This research campus can become a seedbed for a biomedical ecosystem where medical innovation is also promoted with external partners.”

Guests at the groundbreaking ceremony included Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey, Science Senator Ulrike Gote, and Finance Senator Daniel Wesener. The two buildings are being financed as research buildings with state and federal funds amounting to almost 68 million euros, and are the first building blocks of the future Charité research campus at Seestrasse.

Source: Joint press release by the Senate Department for Higher Education and Research, Health, Long-Term Care and Gender Equality and Charité and TU Berlin