Six Clusters of Excellence for the University of Tübingen

GreenRobust: understanding robustness in plants from molecules to ecosystems

Plants are the foundations of life on earth. To ensure their survival, they have evolved strategies to cope with changes in their environment. In particular, they have developed sophisticated mechanisms to maintain their functions in the face of disturbances – a capacity termed “robustness”. With the human impact on our planet growing day by day, it is crucial to understand the underpinnings and limits of plant resilience if we are to develop effective, knowledge-based strategies that help maintain plant ecosystems and ensure agricultural productivity.

The GreenRobust cluster of excellence combines the expertise of the Universities of Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Hohenheim to understand how plants achieve robustness in light of an ever-changing environment. The cluster focuses on the investigation of robustness against climatic and biotic disturbances across various levels of biological organization, from molecules to populations, in a selected group of species from environmentally and agriculturally important plant families. GreenRobust will generate a wealth of data on plant robust behavior, which will be made available to the scientific community, and use network theory and artificial intelligence to develop and test models that describe the mechanisms of plant robustness.

The cluster’s spokesperson is Professor Rosa Lozano-Durán from the University of Tübingen’s Center for Plant Molecular Biology. Co-spokespersons are Professor Karl Schmid from the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics at the University of Hohenheim, and Professor Thomas Greb from the Centre for Organismal Studies at Heidelberg University.

Information on the Cluster of Excellence can be found on the website of the University of Tübingen

HUMAN ORIGINS: A paradigm shift in the study of human evolution

In the 21st century, new research methods and approaches have revolutionized both the study of human origins and our understanding of them.  We now know that several hominin species – representing a previously unimaginable diversity of human ancestors – not only coexisted in time and space, but also interbred repeatedly, contrary to the prevailing definition of species.  Previous assumptions about evolutionary trends - such as an increase in brain size over time - are now in doubt in light of new data. A new approach is therefore required that can match the rapid pace of methodological developments; an approach which seeks new evidence and closes gaps in the hitherto fragmentary investigation of fossil and archaeological finds. The integration of biological, cultural, and ecological factors into the analysis of finds enables researchers to recognize previously unseen connections and to develop new theories.

This cluster of excellence is based on three interlinked, diachronic thematic complexes: systematics and evolutionary relationships, the evolution of human cognition, and the evolution of the human ecological niche. Building on these three themes, HUMAN ORIGINS looks at the past five million years of human evolution and explores questions that are fundamental to both knowledge and society, including: where did we come from and how did we become what we are now? how did it come about that we, Homo sapiens, are the only hominin species still around today? HUMAN ORIGINS is set to help bring about a paradigm shift in the study of human evolution.

The spokeswoman is Professor Katerina Harvati-Papatheodorou, Head of Palaeoanthropology at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment. Co-spokespersons are Professor Christopher Miller, Head of Geoarchaeology, and Professor Nicholas Conard, Head of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology.

Information on the Cluster of Excellence can be found on the website of the University of Tübingen

Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies (iFIT)

Despite intensive efforts, around a third of all solid tumors are diagnosed at an advanced, often metastatic stage. Such mostly incurable cancers are the focus of the iFIT Cluster of Excellence. iFIT stands for a networked cancer research and therapy development approach that combines three main research areas of the University of Tübingen's Faculty of Medicine: functional identification of therapeutic target structures, academic drug development and molecular tumor therapies; immunology and immunotherapies; molecular and functional multiparametric imaging.
In the first funding period, iFIT enabled tumor biological processes to be characterized in greater depth and new targets for molecular and immunological cancer therapeutics and diagnostics to be identified. In the future, the iFIT cluster will further expand academic drug development in order to be able to develop highly innovative cancer therapeutics and diagnostics for initial application in humans.

The success of iFIT to date has contributed to the University of Tübingen becoming a new branch of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), which promotes early clinical trials. This collaboration allows academically developed cancer drugs to be tested more quickly in clinical trials. This ultimately will help to improve the prognosis of cancer patients. 

Spokesperson for the cluster is the oncologist Professor Lars Zender, Medical Director of Medical Oncology and Pulmonology (Internal Medicine VIII). The deputy co-spokespersons are the immunologist Professor Juliane Walz, Head of Peptide-Based Immunotherapy at the University Hospital; and Professor Bernd Pichler, Director of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy and of the Werner Siemens Imaging Center. 

Information on the Cluster of Excellence can be found on the website of the University of Tübingen

Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science

The field of machine learning has developed rapidly in recent years. This opens up promising opportunities for science to improve the predictive power of models and better to predict climate change, for example. The Cluster of Excellence “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science” was launched in 2019. In the first funding period, its researchers used machine learning techniques to gain new insights into very different fields of science: for example, they expanded their knowledge of the fundamental building blocks of the brain or deepened their understanding of gravitational waves in physics.

However, machine learning methods still have weaknesses in terms of their reliability, robustness and interpretability. In the second funding period, the cluster will seek to further develop such methods and integrate automated learning processes into overall academic work processes. The researchers will demonstrate the potential of this approach in a wide range of disciplines and, for example, identify causes of disease progression or clarify the dynamics of quantum systems.

The spokespersons are Ulrike von Luxburg, Professor of Informatics, and Philipp Berens, Professor of Neuroscience and director of the Hertie Institute for AI in Brain Health. The Cluster's partners, along with the University of Tübingen, are the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, the ELLIS Institute Tübingen, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).

Information on the Cluster of Excellence can be found on the website of the University of Tübingen

TERRA: Interactions between geosphere and biosphere in a changing world

Vital resources such as drinking water and the air we breathe are created by interactions between the Earth’s geo- and biosphere. Understanding these interactions in detail is therefore essential for the well-being of humankind. The current human impact on ecosystems is unprecedented, but the underlying laws of nature always apply. The TERRA Cluster of Excellence will investigate how geo-biosphere interactions both respond to and influence environmental change. TERRA tests the hypothesis of whether the geosphere’s diversity stabilizes the biosphere and, vice versa, whether the biosphere’s diversity stabilizes the geosphere – and asks: if this is the case, how?

TERRA stands in the established Tübingen tradition of joint research in the geosciences and life sciences, and includes researchers from the University of Hohenheim and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research in Frankfurt. TERRA pursues an integrative approach, combining fieldwork, experiments, and data studies analyzing different periods of the Earth's history.

TERRA’s representatives are Professors Michaela Dippold, Kira Rehfeld and Olaf Cirpka, all of whom teach and conduct their research at the University of Tübingen’s Geoscience and Environment Research Centre (GUZ).

Information on the Cluster of Excellence can be found on the website of the University of Tübingen