Based on an interdisciplinary and integrative approach, it encompasses projects rooted in biology, medicine, physics, computer science and engineering, as well as cognition and neurophilosophy.
When the Excellence Initiative entered its second round (application: 2010/2011; projects commencing 1 November 2012), the CIN applied for and received a five-year extension of funding and support.
In that year, the University of Tübingen also successfully applied for Excellence Initiative support with its institutional strategy and research school.
[4] Ever since it moved in in early 2012 (official opening ceremony: 14 May 2012), the CIN has been at home in a building of its own on the Tübingen University Hospital's Schnarrenberg campus.
Since its inception, the CIN has been headed by its spokesman, the neurobiologist Prof Dr Peter Thier, who is also director of the Department of Cognitive Neurology at the Center for Neurology/Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at Tübingen University Hospital.
[6] Research at the CIN focuses on the twofold question how the brain generates its functions (such as perception, memory, emotion, communication, motor skills), and how diseases (such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS etc.)
[9] Where investigation into the human brain is concerned, non-invasive imaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) are very important.
To further improve spatial resolution of MRI, research groups at the CIN investigate the potential of high field technology, e.g. an experimental 9.4 Tesla MRI scanner for scanning the brains of human test subjects, and a 14.1 Tesla scanner for small animals, both in use at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics under the aegis of CIN professor Klaus Scheffler.
[11] For non-invasive molecular imaging, CIN research groups also combine MRI with positron emission tomography (PET).
The most recent innovation in optical methods is the localisation of protein molecules in neuronal compartments by combining super-resolution microscopy with a molecule-specific marking technique.
This combined method is used by a CIN junior research group to analyse the consequences of axonal damage incurred in the course of inflammatory or neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
These methods are more and more complemented by invasive optogenetics, allowing activation and deactivation of individual genetically modified neurons using light of a defined wavelength.
[13] Biological data are analysed and processed using modern statistical methods, theoretical neuroscience approaches to simulate neuronal networks and generate hypotheses testable in further experiments.
Students at the GTC have many options to take responsibility; for instance, they can invite guest speakers, and they organise an annual conference aimed at junior neuroscientists (“NeNa-Konferenz”).
After four years, junior research group leaders undergo competitive evaluation based on numerous indicators of scientific accomplishment (publication record, third-party funding won etc.).
External reviews mark the success level of the evaluation and are the factor determining whether the candidate receives tenure in the form of a professorship.
20 students every year, in the course of which participants work on projects, visit local research institutes and listen to scientific talks.