Highlights | To date, SyNergy has:

• revealed numerous new disease-spanning pathomechanisms, including potential leverage points for improved diagnosis and treatment of major degenerative, inflammatory, and vascular CNS diseases, several of which are in transit to clinical exploration;
• supported >25 Tandem Projects and published >600 papers in high-impact journals, resulting in a leadership role of Munich neuroscience in Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke research;
• recruited and promoted rising star scientists, allowing us to rejuvenate and diversify the principal investigator team while filling gaps in our research portfolio and increasing measures of excellence (e.g., >25 ERC grants);
• built two trans-institutional and translational SyNergy Research Centers to integrate the Cluster’s basic and clinical research, readying us for an additional translational push;
• established Technology Hubs to provide broad access to cutting-edge omics and imaging expertise;
• expanded support for early career investigators and clinician-scientists, promoted gender equality and diversity and established key research data management infrastructure, in co-operation with our partner institutions.

Plans | In the next funding period, SyNergy will:

• boost our capacity to understand, diagnose, and treat major CNS diseases by adding new technologies, expertise, and concepts related to disease-spanning mechanisms;
• continue funding Tandem Projects to integrate new concepts and researchers while also developing established collaborations into larger Teams dedicated to key Research Topics centered on disease-spanning principles to accelerate target transition;
• broaden our capabilities to perform Cluster-initiated proof-of-concept studies in humans via new clinical trials units at the SyNergy Research Centers in collaboration with the “M1–Munich Medicine Alliance”, a new initiative by the Bavarian state to extend the trans-institutional integration pioneered by SyNergy to Munich’s entire university medicine;
• initiate new professorships focused on neuroepigenetics, systems neuroscience, and high-hesolution imaging while also contributing to other relevant recruitments;
• expand our Technology Hubs to add dedicated support for disease-spanning data integration, AI expertise, and target transition towards the clinic;
• evolve and grow our support programs by creating a unified M.Sc. and Ph.D. training track, expanding mentoring, integrating medical-scientist, clinician-scientist, and clinician-trialist training, and joining an international postdoc network funded by the NOMIS foundation.

Involved Institutions:

• German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
• Helmholtz Munich – German Research Center for Environmental Health
• Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence
• Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB)
• Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry