The BIH at Berlin Science Week 2023

Nachbericht

This year the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) was part of the Berlin Science Week with seven program offers. Under the motto “Cells – Medicine of the Future” about 300 visitors of the BSW Campus@Naturkundemuseum answered the big cell quiz offered at the joint booth of BIH and GSCN - equipped with a scientific crew that never tired of explaining how research can turn into health. In the festival’s Speaker’s Corner, Dr. Daniel Besser and Dr. Elke Luger informed in their short talks about the Dialog Platform Stem Cell Research and the National Network Office for Gene and Cell Therapies and engaged in in-depth conversations with numerous interested parties about the status of stem cell research and gene therapy in Germany.

Full house also in the evening for the panel discussion of the BIH QUEST Center: Does diversity help or hinder research or what impact does team diversity have on research quality? These were just a few questions discussed by the five panelists of the discussion, organized in cooperation with the Einstein Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation, andBerlin University Alliance. The panel discussion formed the follow-up of an unconference “The Impact of Diversity on Research Quality”. Both events will result in a collaborative paper of all contributors to share lessons learned with the global scientific community.

Around 25 participants came together at the Rahel Hirsch Center for the Berlin Diversithon to edit and rewrite Wikipedia entries for female scientists and other people underrepresented in the life sciences. The Wikipedia writing workshop was jointly organized by the Max Delbrück Center and the BIH as part of Berlin Science Week. After an introduction by the experienced science communicator Franziska Sattler-Morrison, the participants learnt what is important when editing in Wikipedia and dared to write their first articles.

And another highlight of this year: Together with Bayer, the BIH hosted a plenary table at the Falling Walls Science Summit. Under the guiding topic "Altering Medicine by Cell and Gene Therapy," six experts from various scientific disciplines joined in an engaging discussion on many aspects such as public perception, important safety measures, regulatory issues, accessibility and scalability of novel therapeutics and the founding of a center to facilitate translation in this complex field.

One day. 500 participants. Up to 80 renowned experts and newcomers presented innovative concepts and visions in 3-minute short talks, keynotes and debates at the bcc Berlin Congress Center. The great success of the Future Medicine Science Match event series organized by the Berliner Tagesspiegel and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) led to the joint continuation of the popular format. This year's conference focused on the question of how an ecosystem for innovations in cell and gene therapy can be developed. How can science, business and society create an environment for innovation? In addition to specific medical topics, the focus was also on challenges and on how to create a suitable framework to fulfil the BIH's mission: Turning research into health.

>> For further information on all BIH program offers during this year's Berlin Science Week, pleaser refer to this overview.

Impressions of the Berlin Science Week and the Future Medicine Science Match

Photos Berlin Science Week: BIH | Katharina Kalhoff, Stefanie Mahler, Karin Höhne
Photos Future Medicine Science Match: BIH & Tagesspiegel | Laurin Schmid