Our Mission
At the TLRC we pursue an interdisciplinary research program across clinical and basic science disciplines to improve our current understanding of disease processes that are central to these and many other lung diseases such as chronic airways inflammation, mucus hypersecretion, tissue remodeling, structural damage and malignant transformation. We continuously strive to use our discoveries in the laboratory to develop improved diagnostic tools and identify novel therapeutic strategies. In line with the mission of the DZL to employ “Translational Research to Combat Widespread Lung Diseases”, discoveries at the bench are tested in early clinical trials as timely as possible to make advances available for the improvement of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis (CF), diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), pulmonary hypertension (PH), lung cancer (LC) and potentially other common lung diseases in children and adults.
TLRC Partners
The TLRC is a collaboration between the Heidelberg University Hospital and the Medical Faculty Heidelberg, one of the leading medical centers and medical research institutions in Europe, the Thorax Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital, one of Germany’s largest clinical centers for pulmonary diseases, and two research institutions with an outstanding expertise in basic science, theGerman Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and theEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
Foundation
The TLRC was established in 2011 to strengthen existing lung research in Heidelberg and to provide optimal support across institutions for the transfer of basic research findings into clinical practice. Laboratories for tissue culture, histology, microscopy, and FACS support research activities across institutions. 33 TLRC faculty members are also principal investigators in the German Center for Lung Research (DZL). The research programme coordination lies with the Steering Committee.