Prof. Dr. Dr. Daniel Strech will take up the new professorship for Translational Bioethics at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and will take over a research group at the BIH Quest Center for Transforming Biomedical Research. Daniel Strech is an internationally recognized expert on ethical and regulatory issues in pre-clinical and clinical research and in big data. He is a pioneer for a particularly practice-oriented bioethics, which is closely linked to meta-research and stakeholder research.
What is necessary for attaining as much scientific and social value as possible in research involving humans and animals? How can publication practice be improved? How can clarification processes in clinical research be designed so that they are more transparent and efficient? Professor Daniel Strech will find answers to these questions in the new research group at the QUEST Center, thereby making a decisive contribution towards the value of biomedical research.
“Professor Strech is an expert in his field, and – thanks to his research focuses and competencies – he will be an asset to the ongoing translational scientific activities at Charité, BIH and the QUEST Center,” says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Dirnagl, founding director of the Quest Center, which is dedicated to increase the value of biomedical research. "In addition to his groundbreaking bioethical research, Daniel Strech will also implement new concepts for translational medicine. Thus, all researchers and patients will benefit from his rsearch efforts," adds Prof. Dr. Axel Radlach Pries, Dean of the Charité.
New Approaches for Improved Transparency and Research Quality
Based on his research, Daniel Strech has already developed recommendations and approaches to improve biomedical research and increase its transparency. Among other things, he plays a leading role in the development of national guidelines for medical informatics and biobank research. At BIH he will also support the implementation of innovative science-related guidelines and the development the new research platform Clinical-Translational Sciences. In addition, it will offer training modules to improve the quality of biomedical research.
“Translational Bioethics”
Strech's bioethical research is closely related to daily research practice and the factors that influence it. Strech's "translational bioethics" investigates in empirical studies how laws and ethical guidelines are specifically applied in research practice. Based on the study results, proposals are developed in close collaboration with researchers, patient representatives and other relevant stakeholders as to how these ethical requirements can be implemented more effectively and efficiently.
Professor Daniel Strech, who simultaneously studied medicine and philosophy in Düsseldorf, has acquired his competencies in numerous professional positions, including in the USA (National Institutes of Health, NIH), Zurich (Cconsultant for the World Health Organisation, WHO), in Berlin at Charité (Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy) and in Hanover (Heisenberg professorship at the Hanover Medical School, MHH). Accordingly, he has excellent professional networks throughout Germany and internationally. Not least for this reason, Dr. Strech will not only be an asset to BIH and Charité, but also to the biomedical community in Berlin.