Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich

Partner Profile

Klinikum der Universität München (KUM) is the maximal level hospital at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) München. It has 2400 beds providing medical care for 500.000 patients per year, as well as education for 5.000 medical students. It comprises 45 departments/institutes with 120 academic chairs and 10.000 staff members (1.700 physicians). The Medical Faculty has six main research topics officially defined: neuroscience, molecular biomedicine, oncology, inflammation/infection, regenerative medicine, medicine and society. The Friedrich-Baur-Institute (FBI) is part of the Department of Neurology and has a strong focus on neuromuscular, neurogenetic and mitochondrial disorders. It has been funded as a foundation since 1956 and is continuously receiving 450.000 € donations per year for research, therapy and health care in neuromuscular diseases. With its 70 staff members (17 physicians), FBI provides medical care for 4.000 patients per year and processes 600 muscle biopsies per year. Both BMBF-funded German networks on rare diseases that are coordinated by KUM are located at the Friedrich-Baur-Institute, network for muscle dystrophies (MD-NET) and network for mitochondrial diseases (mitoNET).

Expertise

Prof. Thomas Klopstock has been working clinically and scientifically on mitochondrial and other neurogenetic diseases for 16 years. He runs an outpatient clinic for neurogenetic disorders, and is the Principal Coordinator of the German network for mitochondrial disorders (mitoNET). Moreover, he is head of a diagnostic neurogenetics lab and a molecular research lab at KUM. He has extensive experience as Investigator and Principal Investigator in both investigator-driven and industry-driven clinical trials in mitochondrial diseases, Friedreich ataxia and Parkinson disease. With regard to NBIA, he currenty cares for patients with PKAN and other forms of NBIA. Prof. Klopstock and his research group have been successfully collaborating for many years with TIRCON members, in particular TUM, FINCB and UNEW, including mutual research visits in the fields of mitochondrial medicine and NBIA

Main Tasks in Project

LMU leads and coordinates TIRCON. As such, KUM is responsible for the scientific management and the overall success of the consortium. Furthermore, KUM will be:

• Leader of WP4 (Randomized placebo-controlled trial of deferiprone in PKAN)
• Partner in WP1, WP6, WP7, WP8