Preclinical Research

The preclinical research group develops new therapeutic approaches for neurological, in particular neurodegenerative diseases of childhood. This group of diseases primarily includes rare diseases with no existing therapies but a great need for therapy. Therapeutic approaches are developed by identifying useful intracellular targets that can be specifically influenced by drugs in order to reverse the pathophysiology. In addition to the identification of specific targets, high-throughput drug screening methods are also used to identify untargeted therapeutically effective substances. For this purpose, new analytical methods and assays are being developed to measure a meaningful therapeutic response in vitro. Findings from these approaches can also be transferred to other neurodegenerative diseases in adulthood, as they often involve similar intracellular pathomechanisms.