Research Funding for the Challenges of Our Time
In its July meeting, the board of the Einstein Foundation Berlin approved new funding totaling 9.6 million euros. Six million euros will be allocated over six years to establish the new Einstein Center for Youth Mental Health, dedicated to addressing severe mental illnesses affecting young people. In addition, three research projects from Berlin universities and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) are being supported. A postdoctoral grant has been awarded to study alternative forms of economic planning. Two Einstein Visiting Fellowships and an Einstein Circle focused on cancer therapy complete the current funding portfolio.
Einstein Center
Support for Mental Illnesses in Young People
Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and borderline disorder remain difficult to treat even after decades of research; they pose both individual and societal challenges. The actual causes of these illnesses are often unclear, and access to treatment is frequently inadequate. Early symptoms typically appear between ages twelve and twenty-five, a critical period for social, educational, and career development. The new Einstein Center for Youth Mental Health (ECYM) aims to research ways to improve care and to pioneer new approaches for early detection of mental illnesses. Seven Berlin institutions, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Vivantes, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt will collaborate to better understand, detect, and treat mental illnesses in this age group. A large-scale study will scientifically track around 950 young people, both at increased risk and not, over four years. Modern brain imaging, digital surveys, and AI-supported analyses will help identify risk factors and early warning signs. Additionally, new therapies and care models will be developed and tested. Young people with lived experience of mental illness will be actively involved in the research.
Einstein Berlin/HUJI Research Projects
The Role of Soils and Waters in the Climate System
Organic carbon in soils and sediments plays a central role in the global carbon cycle and thus in the Earth's climate system. A significant carbon store in soils is mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM). The transfer of this MAOM into aquatic systems - rivers, lakes, and seas - is poorly understood but has a major impact on the long-term storage or release of carbon dioxide. Led by Mina Bizic, Professor of Environmental Microbiomics at TU Berlin, and Maya Engel, Assistant Professor of Soil and Water Sciences at HUJI, this project investigates how MAOM behaves under various conditions through laboratory experiments, field studies, and natural sample analyses. This interdisciplinary research combining microbiology, soil science, and geochemistry aims to determine whether MAOM in waters acts as a carbon sink or source - an important question for climate science.
New Strategies Against Bacterial Infections
Why do pathogens attack only certain tissues, cell types, or species? This phenomenon, known as tropism, is still poorly understood for many human-specific bacteria. This project investigates this mechanism using enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), which can cause life-threatening intestinal infections especially in young children. The goal is to identify bacterial and human factors allowing EPEC to infect the human gut. The team led by Sina Bartfeld, Professor at the Institute of Medical Biotechnology at TU Berlin, combines human gut organoids with expertise in bacterial genetics and virulence from Ilan Rosenshine, Professor of Bacteriology at HUJI’s Faculty of Medicine. Together, they aim to decode the complex interactions between bacteria and host. Ultimately, this project will provide deeper insights into EPEC infections and develop new methods to study other human gut bacteria, advancing human infection models.
The Role of the Midbrain in Orientation and Decision-Making
A key brain function is enabling flexible orientation in the environment. Navigation involves decisions about when, how, where, or whether to move and requires an internal representation of one’s position. While multiple brain areas coordinate during navigation, the role of a specific midbrain region – the superior colliculus – remains largely unexplored. The team of Matthew Larkum, Professor at the Institute of Biology at HU Berlin and ECN PI, and Ariel Gilad, Assistant Professor of Medical Neurobiology at HUJI, tests the hypothesis that feedback from this region is crucial for selecting and predicting movements. The project builds on the circular feedback loop concept in the brain developed in Berlin, originating from research by Livia de Hoz (Charité). The aim is to better understand neural mechanisms underlying navigation and goal-directed behavior.
Einstein Postdoctoral Grant
With the project Heterodox Planning, Christoph Sorg, researcher at HU Berlin, explores alternative forms of economic planning to develop more participatory, socially inclusive, and sustainable approaches. In times of crisis, when confidence in supposedly free markets erodes, such approaches gain importance. The focus is on two examples: Community Wealth Building, which economically strengthens local communities, and platform cooperatives as democratic alternatives to traditional platform companies. The case studies analyze who plans, what is planned, how participation works, and how central control and local self-governance interact, aiming to develop strategies for social change.
Einstein Visiting Fellows
Sleep was long considered crucial for memory formation. However, recent research shows that the brain can also process and store new information while awake, but in different ways. Lucy Palmer, Professor at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Australia, studies how the brain consolidates memories during sleep and wakefulness. Her work, in collaboration with the NeuroCure cluster of HU Berlin and host Professor Matthew Larkum, investigates how these states interact and how new memories integrate into existing knowledge. Using in vivo imaging and optogenetics in animal models, the study measures and manipulates brain activity to understand flexible memory processing. These insights aim to inform new treatments for memory disorders like Alzheimer’s and PTSD.
Funding for Visiting Fellow David McAlpine has been extended. The professor of auditory neurology at Macquarie University in Sydney continues his project Listen and Learn: The Adapting Auditory Brain in cooperation with Livia de Hoz’s team at Charité’s Neuroscience Research Center. The research focuses on how humans effectively hear in different environments by examining brain region activity involved in hearing in mice. The next phase investigates how behavior, predictability of sounds, and active attention influence hearing. Results will be transferred to experiments with neurodiverse people to explore variations in auditory learning. This project aims to deepen understanding of how the brain learns environmental patterns, particularly in hearing, and contribute to advances in hearing technology.
Einstein Circle
Initiative on Vascular Biology and Tumor Interaction
Berlin is a leading biomedical research hub - especially in oncology, vascular biology, and immuno-oncology. Technologies such as single-cell analyses and spatial imaging now provide unprecedented insights into the interaction between blood vessels and tumors. The Einstein Circle Spatial Biology in Cancer: Focus on Inflammation and Endothelial Cells in Bone Marrow, led by Professor Il-Kang Na, Senior Physician at Charité and Professor of Functional Immuno-Oncology at the Berlin Institute of Health, unites Berlin’s top institutes - Charité, Max Delbrück Center, Leibniz Institute for Rheumatology Research, and FU Berlin - with international experts, including members of the European Society for Spatial Biology e.V., co-founded by Professor Anja Hauser, who is also involved in the Einstein Circle. Together, they initiate research projects, exchange knowledge, and develop new therapeutic approaches. Regular meetings prepare studies, discuss results, and coordinate funding applications. The group focuses on acquiring third-party funding to support junior talents, including a Europe-wide graduate program to expand the Berlin School of Integrative Oncology. The goal is to strengthen Berlin as a center of excellent cancer research and significantly improve patient treatment.
Source: Press Release Einstein Foundation
The Einstein Foundation Berlin is a nonprofit, independent, and science-led organization founded in 2009 as a civil law foundation. It promotes interdisciplinary and international top-level science and research for and in Berlin. To date, it has supported around 240 scientists - including three Nobel laureates - over 70 projects, and eight Einstein Centers.