DDZ opens new Competence Center for Innovative Diabetes Therapy (KomIT) with eight partners

Eight partners, the research expertise of the DDZ and 3.5 million euros in funding: the new Competence Center for Innovative Diabetes Therapy (KomIT) was inaugurated at an official opening event.
This adds an application-oriented research infrastructure to the excellent basic research on diabetes in the Wissensregion Düsseldorf, which will provide important impetus for the pharmaceutical and biotech sector in NRW.
The consortium of industry and university research aims to drive forward the development of new diabetes therapies in a targeted manner.
The aim of the center coordinated by the DDZ is the efficient translation of innovative research results into clinical application to improve diabetes management in patients.
To this end, expertise from management, development and medicinal chemistry, preclinical research, analytics, toxicology and physiology through to clinical trials is pooled and an open platform is provided for NRW, Germany and Europe.

“Through our joint activities, we want to pool our expertise, i.e. accelerate translation, so that patients can benefit more quickly from new findings from basic research,” emphasized Prof. Michael Roden, CEO of the German Diabetes Center and coordinator of the new Competence Center for Innovative Diabetes Therapy (KomIT) at the opening ceremony.”

Unique research infrastructure on the subject of diabetes

The continuous sharp rise in the number of diabetes patients in Germany is placing a socio-economic burden on the healthcare system.
Christoph Dammermann, State Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia:

“The Competence Center for Innovative Diabetes Therapy will create a unique research infrastructure that combines innovative and digital approaches to comprehensive diabetes therapy.
The center will sustainably shape our healthcare system and strengthen North Rhine-Westphalia as a location for business and innovation.”

In his welcoming address, Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyer-Falcke, Deputy Mayor for Health of the state capital Düsseldorf, focused on those affected.
It is important for them to benefit from new research findings as quickly as possible in order to maintain or improve their quality of life.
In addition to the German Diabetes Center (DDZ), Algiax Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Taros Chemicals GmbH & Co. KG, Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC), vivo Science GmbH, A & M Labor für Analytik und Metabolismusforschung Service GmbH, PROFIL Institut für Stoffwechselforschung GmbH and TU Dortmund University with the Drug Discovery Hub Dortmund (DDHD) are involved in the KomIT.

Impetus for start-ups and co

In North Rhine-Westphalia and the Wissensregion Düsseldorf in particular, excellent basic research with clinical-experimental diabetes studies has been conducted for a long time.
However, the current translation of these results into clinical application is not yet sufficient to provide sustainable economic impetus.
Start-ups and small companies with high innovation potential are often not in a position to carry out complex experimental and clinical research with critical mass and the necessary speed.
This is where the new interdisciplinary competence center (KomIT) comes in.
This new type of research infrastructure will provide important impetus for the pharmaceutical and biotech sector in NRW and also strengthen the innovative power and competitiveness of the state of NRW in the long term.
The project is funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the European Union as part of the ERDF.NRW – Investments in Growth and Employment program of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Excellent diabetes research at the DDZ Düsseldorf

The German Diabetes Center (DDZ) in Düsseldorf sees itself as the German reference center for diabetes.
The aim is to contribute to the improvement of prevention, early detection, diagnosis and therapy.
At the same time, the epidemiological data situation in Germany is to be improved.
The DDZ is in charge of the multi-center German Diabetes Study.
It is the point of contact for all stakeholders in the healthcare system, prepares scientific information and makes it available to the public.
The DDZ belongs to the “Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz” (WGL) and is a partner in the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.).