curaTime
About us
  • With curATime we strive to be at the forefront of innovation by collaborating with the brightest minds of academia and industry. We want to push the boundaries of knowledge and create transformative impact.
    Prof. Dr. Johnny Kim
    curATime cluster spokesman
  • curATime stands for innovation by teamwork and interdisciplinarity. Together, we develop disruptive approaches for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
    Priv.-Doz. Dr. Boris Strilic
    Deputy cluster spokesman
  • curATime is a new challenge for us, not only because of the diversity of cluster participants, but especially because it sets the course into completely new research areas for TRON.
    Dr. Tina Büchling
    Administrative coordinator curATime
  • We want to better understand the pathomechanistic processes of atherothrombosis and identify molecular targets that we can address immunotherapeutically.
    Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Ugur Sahin
    curATime Scientist
  • curATime is a tremendous opportunity for translating basic discoveries into new therapeutic strategies and the prevention of atherothrombotic diseases.
    Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Wolfram Ruf
    curATime Scientist
  • The use of AI and Deep Learning for cardiovascular diseases will contribute essentially to the faster and lower-cost development of new drugs, as well as to the improvement of diagnoses and therapies.
    Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Dengel
    curATime Scientist
  • With curATime, we aim to take drug development, diagnostics and prognosis of atherothrombosis to a new level. It is based on highly granular human cohorts with large-scale multi-omics analyses. This will enable us to identify targets and specific signatures directly in humans.
    Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philipp Wild
    curATime Scientist
Our network

curATime is one of 14 future clusters of the "Clusters4Future" initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This initiative promotes geographically concentrated partnership structures that work towards a common goal through cooperation between all relevant stakeholders.  In this way, different technologies and competencies of a region are re-bundled to provide financial support for Germany's top research at an early stage, thus giving the clusters the opportunities to transform their ideas into future-oriented key technologies and applications.

A core team of experts in the fields of biomarker and thrombosis research, clinical cardiology, immunotherapy, epidemiology and machine learning has come together to establish the cluster. With their complementary expertise and access to extensive population studies (Gutenberg Health Study) and disease cohorts, the curATime core partners, consisting of TRON gGmbH, the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern, have excellent prerequisites for achieving the ambitious cluster goals and thus the therapy for combating atherothrombosis that is targeted at the individual patient.

Interactive image of our partner network. Click on the logos to learn more about our partners.
Core partners

curATime cluster coordinator

TRON is a non-profit limited liability company whose mission is to bridge the gap between academic and industrial research. In the course [...]

curATime cluster coordinator

TRON is a non-profit limited liability company whose mission is to bridge the gap between academic and industrial research. In the course of this, TRON studies new therapies for widespread diseases in the population and develops treatment options up to clinical application through collaboration with academic and industrial partners. TRON's core competencies are the interdisciplinary use of genomic and immunological methods with the aim of creating innovative technologies and concepts for the identification and evaluation of potential biomarkers that can be used as the basis for individual immunotherapies. As a pioneer for this therapeutic application, TRON, together with its collaboration partners, sees itself as a think tank and driving force for personalized drug development.

www.tron-mainz.de

The University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz is the only medical center providing supramaximal care in Rhineland-Palatinate and an internationally recognized scientific location. It comprises more than 60 [...]

The University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz is the only medical center providing supramaximal care in Rhineland-Palatinate and an internationally recognized scientific location. It comprises more than 60 clinical departments, institutes and divisions that work together across disciplines and treat more than 320,000 inpatients and outpatients every year. Highly specialized patient care, research and teaching are combined here. The University Medical Center offers training to around 3,500 medical and dental students and to more than 700 healthcare, commercial and technical professionals. With around 8,700 employees, the Mainz University Medical Center is one of the largest employers in the region and an important driver of growth and innovation.

www.unimedizin-mainz.de

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI) was founded in 1988 as a non-profit public-private partnership (PPP). It has sites in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen and Lower Saxony, laboratories in Berlin and Darmstadt, and field offices in Lübeck and Trier. DFKI [...]

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI) was founded in 1988 as a non-profit public-private partnership (PPP). It has sites in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen and Lower Saxony, laboratories in Berlin and Darmstadt, and field offices in Lübeck and Trier. DFKI combines scientific excellence and business-oriented value creation with social appreciation. DFKI has been researching AI for humans for more than 30 years and is oriented towards social relevance and scientific excellence in the crucial future-oriented research and application areas of artificial intelligence. In the international scientific world DFKI Currently, approximately 1,480 employees from over 65 nations are conducting research on innovative software solutions. The financial volume in 2021 was 76.3 million euros. www.dfki.de

Cluster coordination

Prof. Dr. Johnny Kim - Cluster spokesman

Prof. Dr. Johnny Kim, Head of the Department for Cardiovascular Therapeutics at TRON, uses systems biology approaches to study the molecular mechanisms of cell differentiation processes and their reversal. He is a recognised expert in the field of tissue regeneration, stem cell, developmental and reprogramming biology. Johnny is associated with the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) at its Rhein-Main location and Associated Professor (Adjunct) at Yale University in New Haven, USA.

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Boris Strilic - Deputy cluster spokesman

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Boris Strilic is Deputy Head of the Department of Cardiovascular Therapeutics at TRON. He has many years of experience in molecular medicine, particularly in the field of vascular research. Dr. Strilic shares his extensive expertise in vascular cell biology by teaching at the Goethe University Frankfurt.

Dr. Tina Büchling - Administrative coordinator

Dr. Tina Büchling, head of TRONs project and collaboration management, is responsible for external and internal communication. With her as administrative coordinator, curATime will benefit from many years of expertise in agile project management in academic as well as industrial settings. She was already significantly involved in the administrative management of the scientific excellence cluster Ci3 in Mainz.

Scientists

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Ugur Sahin

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Ugur Sahin, Professor of Translational Oncology and Immunology at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (UM) is a co-founder and scientific advisor of TRON gGmbH and CEO of BioNTechSE. He is an internationally distinguished expert in the field of mRNA technology. He focuses his current research activities on novel immunotherapeutic targets and the development of individualized treatment approaches as well as innovative immunotherapies.

Overview of publications

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Dengel

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Prof. h.c. Andreas Dengel, Executive Director of the Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern, Head of the Research Area Smart Data and Knowledge Services and Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau is an internationally distinguished AI expert. As a member of the Biotechnology Advisory Board RLP (https://biotech.rlp.de/de/koordinator-beirat/), Prof. Dengel is contributing his many years of experience in AI-based analysis of multi-omics data and medical images as well as on explainable AI to curATime.

Overview of publications

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Wolfram Ruf

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfram Ruf, Scientific Director and Spokesman of the Centre for Thrombosis and Haemostasis Mainz (CTH), specializes in translational thrombosis research, coagulation factors and their signal transduction in tumour progression, as well as autoimmunity, atherosclerosis and angiogenesis. He is Deputy Spokesman of the Translational Vascular Biology Center Research Center as well as Principle Investigator at the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK).

Overview of publications

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philipp Wild

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philipp Wild is W3 Professor at the University Medical Center Mainz and heads the departments of Clinical Epidemiology and Systems Medicine at the Center for Thrombosis and Haemostasis as well as the department of Preventive Cardiology and Medical Prevention at the Center for Cardiology. He is a recognized expert in the field of translational research on common diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases. His focus lies on a medical systems research approach with multi-level data analyses.

Overview of publications

Our Team
Prof. Miguel Andrade

Prof. Miguel Andrade

Computational Biology and Data Mining Group

Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution

Faculty of Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Link to research Prof. Andrade

Projects:
diAMs
biosignATure

Dr. Francisco Aresta Branco

Dr. Francisco Aresta Branco

Scientist Serodiscovery, BioNTech Diagnostics GmbH

Link to research Dr. Aresta Branco

Projects:
curABodies

Dr. Laura Bindila

Dr. Laura Bindila

Clinical Lipidomics Unit, Institute for Physiological Chemistry, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Dr. Bindila

Projects:
diAMs

Prof. Dr. Tobias Bopp

Prof. Dr. Tobias Bopp

Institute for Immunology & Research Center for Immunotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Prof. Bopp

Projects:
heartATech

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Dengel

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Dengel

Executive Director DFKI; Professor for Artificial Intelligence, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

Link to research Prof. Dengel

Projects:
curATarget
curAIvasc
curAEducate

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Carsten Deppermann

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Carsten Deppermann

Juniorprofessor for Systemic Interactions of Hemostasis, Center for Thombosis and Hemostasis (CTH), University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Jun.-Prof. Deppermann

Projects:
megATarget

Dr. Mustafa Diken

Dr. Mustafa Diken

Deputy Director Immuotherapy Development Center, TRON gGmbH
Vice President Vaccines & Immunology, BioNTech SE

Link to research Dr. Diken

Projects:
microbAIome
megATarget

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dimmeler

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dimmeler

Institute for Cardiovascular Regeneration, Center for Molekular Medicine, Goethe-University Frankfurt

Link to research Prof. Dimmeler

Projects:
endoTArget

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Daniel Dürr

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Daniel Dürr

Head Congenital Heart Surgery, Head Basic Research Laboratory, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to Cardiovascular Surgery

Link to research Prof. Dürr

Projects:
curATarget

Dr. Roman Fischer

Dr. Roman Fischer

Resano Gmbh, a BioNTech company

Link to research Dr. Fischer

Projects:
curAIntervent

Prof. Dr. Johnny Kim

Prof. Dr. Johnny Kim

Director Department for Cardiovascular Therapeutics, TRON gGmbH

Link to research Prof. Kim

Projects:
curAIntervent

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kramer

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kramer

Institute for Informatics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

Link to research Prof. Kramer

Projects:
curAIscid
curAIheart
curAIknow

Dr. Nina Lolies

Dr. Nina Lolies

Project management, TRON gGmbH

Link to research Dr. Lolies

Projects:
curACulture
curAEducate

PD Dr. Nadine Müller-Calleja

PD Dr. Nadine Müller-Calleja

Institute for Clinical Chemistry & Laboratory medicine, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Dr. Müller-Calleja

Projects:
endoTArget

Dr. Jama Nateqi

Dr. Jama Nateqi

CEO and Founder of Symptoma GmbH

Link to research Dr. Nateqi

Projects:
curAHub

Dr. Cathrin Nourse

Dr. Cathrin Nourse

Scientific Coordinator, program coordinator career program Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University Medical Center Mainz,

Link to Information Cathrin Nourse

Projects:
curAEducate

Prof. Dr. Lutz Nuhn

Prof. Dr. Lutz Nuhn

Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry, Center of Polymers for Life, Institute of Functional Materials and Biofabrication, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Link to research Prof. Nuhn 

Projects:
curAIntervent
megATarget

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinhardt

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinhardt

Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Prof. Reinhardt

Projects:
microbAIome

André Rinau

André Rinau

CEO and founder Mondata GmbH

Link to research André Rinau

Projects:
curAHub

Dr. Andrée Rothermel

Dr. Andrée Rothermel

Scientific Managing Director TRON gGmbH

Link to research Dr. Rothermel

Projects:
curAHub

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfram Ruf

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfram Ruf

Scientific Director Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Prof. Ruf

Projects:
curATarget
curAIntervent
endoTArget
curACulture

Dr. Jürgen Scheele

Dr. Jürgen Scheele

Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President Drug Discovery Innoplexus AG;
Adj. Prof. for Oncology and Pharmacology, University Freiburg

Link to research Dr. Scheele

Projects:
curAIknow

Dr. Anja Schubert

Dr. Anja Schubert

Project management, TRON gGmbH

Link to research Dr. Schubert

Projects:

curAHub

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Boris Strilic

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Boris Strilic

Deputy Director Department for Cardiovascular Therapeutics, TRON gGmbH

Link to research Dr. Strilic

Projects:
heartATech

Dr. Vincent ten Cate

Dr. Vincent ten Cate

Group leader at Preventive Cardiology and Medical Prevention, Virchow fellow at Center for Thrombosis and Hemosthasis, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Dr. ten Cate

Projects:

biosignATure

curAIsig

microbAIome

curABodies

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Tenzer

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Tenzer

Institute for Immunology, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Prof. Tenzer

Projects:
diAMs

Carina Versantvoort

Carina Versantvoort

Head Functional Unit Serodiscovery, TRON gGmbH

Link to research Carina Versantvoort

Projects:
curABodies

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sara Vieira-Silva

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sara Vieira-Silva

Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Medical Center Mainz; Institute for Molecular Biology, Mainz, Institute for Quantitative & Computational Biosciences (IQCB), Mainz

Link to research Prof. Vieira-Silva

Projects:
microbAIome

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vollmer

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vollmer

Head of the Research Area Data Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH

Link to research Prof. Vollmer

Projects:
curAIscid
curAIknow
biosignATure

Dr. David Weber

Dr. David Weber

Head Functional Unit Expression and Cell Biology, TRON gGmbH

Link to research Dr. Weber

Projects:
curATarget

Univ.-Prof. Julia Weinmann-Menke

Univ.-Prof. Julia Weinmann-Menke

Head of Clinic for Nephrology, Rheumatology and Kidney Transplantation (NTX) and SLE-Ambulance, Deputy Stellv. Lecturer, Program Direktor TRANSMED Research School, Direktor Gutenberg Nachwuchskolleg (GNK), University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Dr. Weinmann-Menke

Projects:
endoTArget

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philip Wenzel

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philip Wenzel

Center for Cardiology, Deputy Clinic Director, Head Heart Failure Unit, Centrer for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University Medical Center Mainz

Link to research Prof. Wenzel

Projects:
heartATech

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philipp Wild

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Philipp Wild

Preventive Cardiology and Medical Prevention, Professorship „Clinical Epidemiology“, Coordinator Gutenberg Health Study (GHS), Principal Investigator Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislaufforschung (DZHK)

Link to research Prof. Wild

Projects: biosignATure, microbAIome, curABodies,
curAIscid, curAIvasc, curAIheart, curAIsig,
curAHub

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Abdelhak Zoubir

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Abdelhak Zoubir

Signal Processing Group, Technical University Darmstadt

Link to research Prof. Zoubir

Projects:
curAIsig


curATime advisory board

Prof. Dr. Elisabeth André - University of Augsburg

Prof. Dr. Christoph Binder – Med. University of Vienna

Prof. Dr. Hugo ten Cate - CARIM, University of Maastricht

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christoph Huber - University Medical Center Mainz, Med. University Vienna, BioNTech, Ci3

Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch - JGU Mainz

Dr. Kirsten Leineweber - Bayer Pharmaceuticals

Prof. Dr. Özlem Türeci – CIMT, HI-TRON, BioNTech SE

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster - DFKI