Dresden: New Building for Research into the Fundamentals of Life
State-of-the-art facilities for tomorrow’s cutting-edge research: The German Research Council has recommended funding for a new research building at Dresden University of Technology (TUD). Up to 77.2 million euros have thus been allocated for the future Center for the Organization of Living Matter (COLM).
To understand the physical foundations of life, researchers from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, medicine, and computer science will collaborate in an interdisciplinary manner at COLM. The new building provides the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life with an outstanding research infrastructure.
In addition to a building design that is open and designed to facilitate direct interaction, the funding approval enables the purchase of several large-scale instruments, including a two-photon laser scanning microscope, which researchers can use to observe and modify the physical properties of cells as they form organs or tumors.
Subject to the final decision of the Joint Science Conference (GWK), the total costs of the construction project will be shared equally by the federal government and the Free State of Saxony. Construction is scheduled to take place from 2027 to 2031.
Innovative spatial concept
The building complex is to be constructed on the TUD Tatzberg Campus in Dresden-Johannstadt, in the immediate vicinity of the Medical Campus. The building section now recommended by the Science Council is designed to accommodate a total of 138 people across 2,775 m². The spatial layout, featuring open-space laboratories and offices, follows an open-use concept to promote scientific exchange. Research spaces are to be allocated based on function, not assigned to specific individuals.
About the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life (PoL)
Physics of Life (PoL) is one of five Clusters of Excellence at TU Dresden. The goal of PoL is to identify the physical laws underlying the organization of life in molecules, cells, and tissues. In the cluster, scientists from physics, biology, and computer science investigate how active matter in cells and tissues organizes itself into specific structures and gives rise to life. PoL is funded by the DFG as part of the Excellence Strategy. It is a collaboration between scientists at TUD and research institutions in the DRESDEN-concept network, such as the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS), the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research (IPF), and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).
In light of recent advances and the increasing use of artificial intelligence in basic research, PoL has established a new research focus: bio-data science and physics-inspired AI. This research focus aims to develop novel computational approaches, including topological data analysis, data-driven modeling, and artificial intelligence, to extract essential information from complex and high-dimensional datasets.