Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit

The Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit is an alliance between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. Its primary aim is to uncover the molecular basis of disease and to speed the transformation of biomedical discoveries into personalized medicine strategies.

Founded in 2002, the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU) comprises ten inter-disciplinary research teams. It is co-directed by Prof. Andreas Kulozik from the Angelika-Lautenschläger Hospital for Children and Adolescents at the University of Heidelberg, by Prof. Matthias Hentze and Dr. Wolfgang Huber (scientist) from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and is housed in the Otto-Meyerhof-Research Center on the Medical Campus of the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Research themes
Research themes place emphasis on common diseases as well as on rare diseases with a particular medical need.

In 2024 more than 120 international scientists work on the following ten research themes:
 * ‘Translational RNA Biology’, headed by Andreas Kulozik and Matthias Hentze
 * ‘Iron homeostasis in health and disease’, headed by Martina Muckenthaler and Matthias Hentze.
 * ‘Chronic Pain and Homeostasis’ headed by Rohini Kuner, Theodore Alexandrov, Robert Prevedel and Jan Siemens.
 * ‘Molecular Pediatric Oncology’ headed by Jan Korbel and Andreas Kulozik.
 * ‘Systems Medicine of Cancer Drugs’ headed by Sascha Dietrich, Wolfgang Huber (scientist) and Junyan Lu.
 * ‘Stem Cell–Niche Networks in Ageing and Disease’ headed by Caroline Pabst, Judith Zaugg, Anthony D. Ho and Carsten Müller–Tidow.
 * ‘Chronic Kidney Diseases’ headed by Rainer Pepperkok, Julio Saez-Rodriguez and Matias Simons.
 * ‘Heart Development and Diseases’ headed by Eileen Furlong and Johannes Backs.
 * ‘Microbiota Drug Metabolism and Cancer Therapy’ headed by Matthias Ebert, Tianzuo Zhan and Michael Zimmermann.
 * ‘ECM Brain’ headed by Alba Diz-Muñoz and Michael Platten.