At the Hertha-Sponer College (HSC) in Göttingen, a new generation of top researchers is emerging — thanks to a concept that is unique in Germany.
The HSC is part of the Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging: From Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells” (MBExC) at the University of Göttingen and the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG). It is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in medicine and the natural sciences, as well as postdoctoral researchers and physician-researchers interested in a career at the intersection of basic research and biomedicine.
And at MBExC, the focus is on something truly significant: the human heart and the human brain. The goal of the research is to find new approaches and possibilities for understanding how the heart and brain function, what happens when they become diseased — and how to restore them to health. To this end, researchers are studying so-called nanoscale functional units in electrically excitable heart and nerve cells. These are structures ranging in size from one to 100 nanometers: they can be up to 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. The goal of the research at the MBExC on the Göttingen campus is to understand disease-relevant nanoscale functional units in electrically excitable heart and nerve cells—as a foundation for developing novel therapies for diseases of the heart and brain.
The cluster also includes the Hertha Sponer College. It helps train students and researchers who are passionate about a career at the intersection of biomedical research and the natural sciences to become a new generation of top researchers.
Regarding the work and future of the institution, faktor asked Prof. Dr. Claudia Steinem, Prof. Dr. Tobias Moser, and Dr. Heike Conrad a series of questions.
Here you can find the whole interview (in German) at faktor Magazine as PDF 
and on the faktor Website.
