German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ)

The German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ) plays an important role in the development and implementation of measures to promote child and adolescent health and contributes to improving the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research of diseases of childhood and adolescence.

The DZKJ at the Hamburg site is headed by Prof. Muntau (Director, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the UKE) and the Leibniz Institute of Virology is the second partner at the site. Together with Berlin, the Hamburg site coordinates the research focus on rare genetic diseases and makes its drug development platform available to all DZKJ sites. In addition, Hamburg coordinates the research area of CNS development and neurological diseases together with Göttingen and makes significant contributions to the research focus areas of immunity, inflammation, infection with the participation of the LIV; as well as psychosocial and mental health and early determinants of health and disease.

The partners at the Hamburg site have internationally recognized expertise in interdisciplinary paediatric research with a focus on rare diseases. Their spectrum ranges from genetic protein folding disorders and lysosomal diseases to immunology, gene therapy and genome editing.

The Leibniz Institute of Virology is centrally involved at the DZKJ site in Hamburg and is active in the DZKJ research focus Immune System, Inflammation, Infections (IEI), which concentrates on studies of the human immune system in children. The aim is to understand the development and function of a healthy immune system and to investigate the role of the immune system in the control of infectious diseases. Various organoid models are being developed for this purpose, which will be used for preclinical studies in cooperation with our project partners.