Key Profile Area Aging-Associated Diseases
The number of elderly people is steadily increasing across the globe. The aging process is the main risk factor for a number of diseases, some of which are chronic, including metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, renal insufficiency, and cancer. This KPA focuses on the fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that lead to aging and its associated diseases. The Cologne Cluster of Excellence on Aging and Aging-associated Diseases
(CECAD) is its central building block and has developed into the largest European centre for aging research since it was founded in 2007. By integrating innovative concepts from various disciplines at the UoC, which address the challenges of demographic change and the aging of our society, the intention is to advance new approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of age-related diseases and the promotion of healthy aging.
Contacts
Prof. Dr. (Kopie 1)
Spokesperson
CECAD
Prof. Dr. (Kopie 1)
Vice spokesperson
CECAD
Dr. Sibylle Grandel
Administrative Coordinator
CECAD Office
Participating faculties
Global Faculty Members
In cooperation with the University of Cologne (UoC), CECAD has established an extremely successful Global Faculty (GF) program within the KPA. Outstanding international aging experts contribute significantly to research and teaching at CECAD and offer significant added value through their networking and mentoring of the next generation of scientists.
In the first six months of the current funding period, there was close collaboration with Tamas Horvath (Yale University), Andrew Dillin (UC Berkeley) and Sara Wickström (University of Helsinki), who has been Director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster since 2023.
Jan Hoeijmakers (Erasmus University Rotterdam and Princess Maxima Center, Utrecht) has been a Global Faculty Member since 2017. He also acts as Principle Investigator in CECAD and is leading a project on genome conservation.
In 2024, CECAD also welcomed Eunjung (Alice) Lee (Harvard Medical School) as a new Global Faculty member. She is an expert in computational biology and researches the role of transposons and mutations in (neuronal) ageing. She is also a Mercator scholarship holder as part of the CRC 1678.
Here you can find all members of the Global Faculty Program at the University of Cologne.
Collaborative and third-party funded projects
The Aging-Associated Diseases KPA is linked to several collaborative and third-party funded projects, including a Cluster of Excellence. The CECAD Cluster has consistently invested a large part of its resources in the strategic development of a strong research infrastructure and the recruitment of outstanding researchers to further expand scientific expertise for the KPA. The established outstanding central technology platforms and the state-of-the-art translational infrastructure significantly support externally funded consortium initiatives on other topics of aging research that complement the KPA's research programme.
Transfer
The CECAD Research Platform B (RP-B) provides KPA researchers with translational expertise, infrastructure and training. RP-B continues to offer access to biobanks and cohorts and provides the expertise to translate basic research findings into translational projects.
A considerable number of translational projects and a substantial amount of infrastructure have been established in the KPA, with around 25 ongoing interventional investigator-initiated trials (IITs) and around 40 translational cohorts with data from over 25,000 patients and more than 53,000 healthy volunteers.
Several patents have emerged from the KPAs, and three start-ups have been successfully founded as spin-offs since 2019.
Among the educational programmes, the "Translational Scientist in Aging Research" (TSAR) programme developed under the direction of Prof Cornely and the web-based course for clinical trial nurses are particularly worth highlighting here.
The KPA has further increased its visibility by carrying out additional public relations work. Also noteworthy are the series of events presented in cooperation with the German community college, the open house day, which attracts more than 600 visitors every two years, and the increasing demand for CECAD reports for television and podcast contributions and for newspaper reports.
Teaching
The KPA is involved in the integration of courses and modules on aging into the medical curriculum (EIT Health PhD summer course, CECAD research fellowship for medical students) as well as in the development and establishment of special national and international master's programmes (‘Genetics and Biology of Aging and Regeneration’ winter semester 2023 onwards; Master's programme ‘ImAGEin - International Masters on the Biology of Ageing’ – starting in July 2025).
Every two years, summer schools on the subject of aging research are held for around 20 international Bachelor's, Master's and medical students.
Partnerships
The KPA Aging-Associated Diseases cooperation network includes both regional and international universities and AUFs.
Regional partnerships
- Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
- Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
- Heidelberg University, Centre for Organismal Studies (COS)
International partnerships
- Universität Leiden, NL
- Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, USA
- Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, NL
- Alliance for Healthy Aging, USA, UK, NL, DK
- ImAGEin Master Program, NL, FRA, ESP, PT
Research infrastructures
Technology and technology development are provided in the form of seven state-of-the-art CECAD core facilities, including electron microscopy and fluorescence imaging, advanced mass spectroscopy for quantitative protein and lipid analyses, and professional genomics and bioinformatics resources.
CECAD is home to the following facilities: Bioinformatics, FACS, imaging, in vivo research facility, lipidomics/metabolomics, proteomics, systems neuroscience.
Media
The podcast series Exzellent erklärt (excellently explained) contains the following episodes with the participation of the KPA:
- Hunger and depression - What our brain has to do with it (F. Jessen & H. Fenselau)
- Aging - How to maintain health as you age (C. Polidori & B. Schumacher)
You can find more podcasts, videos and media reports in the media library on the CECAD website.