The Charité Center 7 (CC7) (anaesthesieintensivmedizin.charite.de) consists of two departments housed on three campuses. Claudia Spies, the centre’s director, and co-workers lead several working groups e.g. on microcirculation, haemostaseology, immunology, but likewise on the prevention of sepsis and multi-organ failure, and on clinical harm and risk reduction and the prevention of POD/POCD.

Main contacts:
Georg Winterer      Georg.Winterer@charite.de
Claudia Spies        Claudia.Spies@charite.de

The BCAN (www.berlin-can.de) is a new brain imaging center at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin that was established in January 2011. The BCAN operates two new 32-channel Siemens 3-Tesla TIM Trio scanners and has a throughput of approximately 4000 cases per year. The BCAN has a computing cluster, multiple testing rooms, MR-compatible TMS and EEG plus state-of-the-art stimulation setup.

Main contact:
John-Dylan Haynes      Haynes@bccn-berlin.de

The Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Campus Mitte (psy-ccm.charite.de) is part of the CharitéCenter 15 (Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry) and combines basic and clinical neuroscience, thus providing an excellent inter-disciplinary setting for biological research, psychiatric expertise, and modern therapy concepts. MR research represents the core methodology for cognitive neuroscience and phenotyping in normal and pathological states.

Main contact:
Jürgen Gallinat      Juergen.Gallinat@charite.de

The group has a long-standing interest in neuropathology and neuroimmunology with an emphasis on neuro-immune interactions in Alzheimer's disease and the role of myeloid cells in CNS physiology and pathology (www.charite.de/neuropathologie). The primary expertise of the group is transgenic mouse models of disease, in vivo experimentation, histopathological analyses and state-of-the-art molecular and biochemical techniques.

Main contact:
Frank Heppner      frank.heppener@charite.de

BCRT is acting as an interdisciplinary laboratory of the Charité with specialization in immunology. The institute offers a wide range of methods focusing on cellular phenotype typing and cellular immune function tests in patients with suspected primary or secondary immunodeficiencies as well as in intensive care patients.

Main contact:
Frank Heppner      frank.heppener@charite.de

With over 1000 beds and more than 10000 employees the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC) is one of the largest academic centers in the Netherlands.
Division of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine: Current research of the division (www.umcutrecht.nl/subsite/research-anesthesiology) includes studies on delirium screening and monitoring based on neurophysiological alterations. To improve understanding of the pathophysiology, neuroimaging studies and large-scale epidemiological investigations on presumed risk factors are conducted. Also, the effects of nursing environment on sleep and delirium and long-term outcome (including cognitive function and quality of life) after delirium are studied.

Main contacts:
Arjen Slooter             a.slooter-3@umcutrecht.nl
Jeroen Hendrikse      j.hendrikse@umcutrecht.nl

CUH is one of the largest academic centres in the UK. CUH is a leading partner in the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which also includes the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. The Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre (WBIC) (www.wbic.cam.ac.uk) is a University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine research facility attached to the Addenbrooke's Hospital Neuro Critical Care Unit and dedicated to imaging function in the human brain using Positron Emission Tomography and Magnetic Resonance. The Division of Anesthesia, with international recognised experts in functional and structural brain imaging, is partner of the consortium.

Main contacts:
Emmanuel Stamatakis      eas46@cam.ac.uk
Jacobus Preller                 kobus@preller.me.uk

The Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch (www.mdc-berlin.de) combines basic research in molecular biology and genetics with clinical research in the fields of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, cancer, and function and dysfunction of the nervous system. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association of Research Centers, which is the largest Research Association in Germany, and has been ranked 14th in the Thompson Reuters list of the world's 20 best research institutes for molecular biology and genetic, based on publication records in 2010. The Molecular Epidemiology Research Group at the MDC is committed to studying at the molecular level the relationship between lifestyle, genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors with risk and outcome of chronic diseases in human populations. The Group has a strong expertise in the use of biological specimen from large-scale cohort studies for the analysis of biomarker-disease risk relationships.

Main contacts:
Tobias Pischon     tobias.pischon@mdc-berlin.de
Jürgen Janke        juergen.janke@mcd-berlin.de

The National Research Council (CNR) (www.cnr.it/sitocnr/home.html) is the Italian government agency for research. The CNR Institute of Protein Biochemistry (IBP) is a centre of scientific excellence in the area of protein structure, function and biocatalysis, with research in cell biology and pharmacology, and in bioimaging and biosensing, which promotes links between the basic knowledge of protein biochemistry and biomedicine and biotechnology. The Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Cytokines has extensive experience in innate immunity mechanisms, focussing on human responses to inflammatory stimuli in physiological vs. pathological conditions, with particular emphasis on the activity of monocytes/macrophages, the interleukin-1 cytokine network, and the role of inflammation in chronic/progressive autoimmune and degenerative diseases and during ageing.

Main contact:
Diana Boraschi     d.boraschi@ibp.cnr.it

The University of Luxembourg, founded in 2003, is one of the youngest universities in Europe. Systems biomedicine has been identified as a high priority research area. For this purpose the government of Luxembourg has launched a major program in personalized medicine, which includes the establishment of a Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB). The Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) (wwwde.uni.lu/lcsb) is headed by Rudi Balling who has been recruited as the founding director of this new Centre in 2009. A major focus of the LCSB is on the analysis of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson's disease. Scientists at the LCSB have intensive knowhow in studying complex biological systems, particularly in disease network inference and analysis. The staff consists of a highly interdisciplinary team of biologists, MD´s, theoretical physicists, computer scientists and engineers trained in systems control and artificial intelligence. Members of the LCSB also have wide expertise in the analysis of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and animal models human diseases. The LSCB has a significant compute and storage infrastructure with access to a compute cluster with more than 1000 cores and 1 PetaByte of disk space. The group maintenance several large-scale software pipelines for bioinformatics data analysis tasks.

Main contacts:
Reinhard Schneider     reinhard.schneider@uni.lu
Roland Krause             roland.krause@uni.lu

ATLAS Biolabs (www.atlas-biolabs.com) is a leading European service provider of complex analyses in molecular genetics, including next generation sequencing, target sequence enrichment, microarray analyses and mass spectrometry supplemented by high-level bioinformatics support and RNA/DNA isolation from biological specimens. It was founded in 2006 as a spin-off of the RZPD, German Resource Center for Genomics and the Cologne Center for Genomics. Company's services are certified by Affymetrix, Agilent, and NimbleGen.

Main contacts:
Peter Nürnberg       nuernberg@atlas-biolabs.com
Karsten Heidtke      heidtke@atlas-biolabs.com

PharmaImage – Biomarker Solutions GmbH (www.pi-pharmaimage.com) is a clinical research organization (CRO) supporting clinical trial centers and classic CROs with biomarker solutions for clinical CNS studies. PharmaImage has been founded in 2009 by Georg Winterer. As a specialist niche service provider, the business model of PharmaImage is to offer biomarker solutions to the pharmaceutical industry (R&D) – primarily for clinical phase-I//a studies. PharmaImage is committed to provide CNS drug discovery and development with the best translational biomarker solutions, clinical study expertise and industry quality standard to deliver essential information and predictive results.

Main contact:
Pharmaimage      pi.pharmaimage@gmail.com

Immundiagnostik AG (www.immundiagnostik.com), founded in 1986 by Dr. Franz Paul Armbruster (CEO), is specialized on the development, production, and world-wide distribution of innovative parameters and detection methods for laboratory diagnostics and medical research. The main focus is the development of immunological tools, of HPLC and molecular biology methods, and of new applications for mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The company holds a particularly strong portfolio in markers of oxidative stress/anti-aging, gastroenterology and nutrition, skeletal system, and cardio-reno-vascular system. Immundiagnostik owns more than 35 patents in Europe, the US, Japan, Canada, and Australia, is certified according to DIN ISO 9001 and fulfills the requirements of the German Medical Device Regulation and the EU IVD Regulations (98/79 EG).

Main contacts:
Marion Kronabel          marion.kronabel@immundiagnostik.com
Thomas Dschietzig      thomas.dschietzig@immundiagnostik.com

ALTA S.r.l.u. (www.altaweb.eu) is a service-provider company specialized in developing and managing scientific research projects. Founded in 1998 by Aldo Tagliabue, ALTA has been involved in several projects since the 5th FP. ALTA has been chosen by 39 among the top Italian scientists and is involved in the management of 18 projects funded by the EC.

Main contacts:
Aldo Tagliabue        tagliabue@altaweb.eu
Michela Renzulli      renzulli@altaweb.eu

Cellogic GmbH (www.cellogic.de) is a consulting business focusing on early regulatory and health-economic aspects of innovations in regenerative medicine. It was formed as a spin-off enterprise from BCRT (Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies) and established in the course of a BMBF-funded research and development project. Health economic analysis of early phase clinical trials is a major focus of the project besides prospective cost-benefit analyses and preparation of reimbursement decisions.

Main contacts:
Malte Pietzsch      malte.pietzsch@cellogic.de
Simon Weber       simon.weber@cellogic.de

PTB (www.ptb.de/cms) is Germany's national metrology institute providing scientific and technical services. Its "In vivo MRI " group is embedded in the department "Medical Metrology" in Berlin which is operating its own 3T whole-body MRI scanner since 1995; then the first 3T scanner in Germany, a Bruker Medspec 100/30, now a state of the art Siemens Verio system. As a founding member of the Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility at the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Berlin-Buch, PTB had a leading role in securing and installing a 7T whole-body scanner for Berlin and has guaranteed access to that machine.
PTB's Medical Metrology department is a methodologically oriented research group in MRI with a longstanding research focus on quantitative MR spectroscopy in the human brain at high (≥ 3T) and ultrahigh (≥ 7T) magnetic fields. PTB was a core partner in the Berlin NeuroImaging Center (BNIC) and is also a neuroimaging partner for the FP 6 multicenter study IMAGEN and its follow-up studies. The latter study is just one example for PTB's close cooperation with Charité – Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Jürgen Gallinat, Andreas Heinz), a fruitful partnership which over the years has led to more than 30 common publications.

Main contact:
Bernd Ittermann      bernd.ittermann@ptb.de