The official opening of the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC) marks the beginning of a new institution in Frankfurt dedicated to addressing the big research questions in neuroscience in innovative ways.

The Ernst Strüngmann Institute (ESI), the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics and the Goethe University Frankfurt have jointly established CoBIC. The close collaboration of these partners creates a research environment with access to a high-tech imaging infrastructure that shares knowledge across disciplines and further strengthens Frankfurt as an international hub of brain research.

A center for groundbreaking questions

What makes CoBIC special is not just the technology, but the scientific excellence that drives it. It bridges the gap between the scientific work at the single-cell and network level and cognitive research. The goal: to understand the processes behind our perception and memory.

The ESI plays a central role in this research. Its expertise in neuroscience provides the basis for understanding how the brain processes information and makes decisions, for example.

In the immediate neighborhood of the ESI, CoBIC has been deliberately designed as an interdisciplinary interface.

The exchange of researchers with very different specializations (neuroscience/physics/mathematics, etc.) also initiates the transfer of methods by inspiring new ideas from other research contexts. A forum for this dialogue is also provided by a weekly CoBIC lecture series.

This transfer can also be the key to disruptive innovations, which often arise where different ways of thinking meet. This is precisely where the strength of CoBIC lies.

From basic research to clinical application

In addition, research at CoBIC also builds bridges to neuropsychiatry, whose clinical pictures are currently still primarily diagnosed and classified using phenomenology. The researchers at CoBIC are working, among other things, to provide new definitions of disease entities and to answer the question, for example, of whether there are biomarkers that can be used to redefine patient groups and personalize therapies.

To this end, many methodological approaches are now being combined: it is no longer sufficient to examine structures by imaging alone. Among other things, analyses of metabolism are also used, for example in research on epilepsy or the function of the blood-brain barrier, and simulations using algorithms.

Frankfurt as a center of brain research

It is no coincidence that CoBIC is located in Frankfurt. The city has established itself as a leading research hub, with excellent universities, Max Planck Institutes and the Ernst Strüngmann Institute, which is a partner and makes a significant contribution to the scientific depth of CoBIC.

CoBIC is committed to an open approach to science: research results should not remain in the academic sphere. The center also wants the public to participate – with lectures, readings and interdisciplinary events that combine neuroscience with art and music.

A milestone for neuroscience

The opening of CoBIC was attended by leading representatives from science, society and politics. Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. mult. Wolf Singer, founding director of the ESI and co-initiator of CoBIC, emphasized the importance of the center for brain research:

“The history of BIC’s founding and its completion in CoBic is a shining example of the successful cooperation between the Goethe University, the State of Hesse, the Max Planck Society and the Ernst Strüngmann Institute. As a platform for translational research on the human brain, CoBic combines basic neurobiological research with clinical research.”

Prof. Dr. h.c. Lothar Willmitzer, Managing Director of the ESI, also emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary exchange for the future of neuroscience: “With the opening of CoBIC, scientists at the ESI have access to world-class research opportunities.”

With CoBIC, a research facility is arising in Frankfurt that will push the boundaries of neuroscience. The Ernst Strüngmann Institute is proud to be a partner in this pioneering endeavor – for science, for Frankfurt, and for our understanding of the human mind.