PARTICLE PHYSICS

Prof. Karl Lauterbach, the German Federal Health Minister, visited the DESY research centre in Hamburg on 30 June 2023, bringing experiences from the pandemic with an eye towards accelerating tomorrow’s health research. Lauterbach acknowledged the research centre’s prominent role, its unique expertise, and the diverse possibilities for application of the centre’s accelerator-based light sources, including for health research, as well as for the future of Germany as a leader in science.

“The interdisciplinary research work at DESY is an outstanding example of cutting-edge research in Germany—and of how this research directly benefits people’s healthcare. With the help of X-ray analytics, DESY made an enormously important contribution to the development of mRNA vaccines,” said Minister Lauterbach. “In the future, the technologies in use here can bring progress to the investigations of Parkinson’s-like diseases or the further development of biodegradable implants. For this commitment, I am with all my heart thankful.”

On a tour through DESY’s large PETRA III experiment hall, the guests could get an impression of DESY’s research infrastructure. Members of the DESY Directorate presented the Minister and other guests from the Federal Chancellery current experiments at a beamline as well as insights gained from research into the development of a COVID medication.

“At DESY, we couple excellent basic research with current topics in applied research that are essential for business and society, as well as in the health sector,” said Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors. With that, he made an appeal for DESY’s future project PETRA IV: “In order to keep Germany’s X-ray analysis capabilities world-class, we need to upgrade the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source through the PETRA IV project. PETRA IV combines groundbreaking accelerator technology with AI-supported analysis and will be the best synchrotron radiation source in the world.”

Dosch adds: “As the National Analytics Centre, DESY already offers an optimal innovation environment for researchers and for companies. With PETRA IV, this service on DESY’s interdisciplinary research campus will be world-leading, with its strong network of partners.” The DESY campus is already home to several academic institutes and research centres, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), as well as the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) and its partners, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV), and the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

Therefore, to end his DESY visit, Minister Lauterbach took part in a roundtable discussion on the topic of health research. Participating at this Life Science Forum were not only the DESY Directors and the leaders of the campus institutes involved in health research, but also Dr Christiane Honisch, the leader of the diagnostics department at the life sciences company Evotec, and Hamburg’s Science Senator and Second Mayor Katharina Fegebank. “The DESY research campus in Bahrenfeld already unites top-class large research facilities with an international science community and world-renowned institutes,” Fegebank said. “DESY has significantly shaped the development of this location, and in the future, it will continue to play a role of both regional and international significance. With the super X-ray source PETRA IV, we plan to have another research flagship in the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld, which will draw large numbers of researchers from all around the world.”