With the “West German Genome Center” (WGGC), the University of Cologne, the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf have acquired a joint competence center at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The WGGC will initially receive funding of around 5.3 million euros plus a 22 percent program flat rate for three years. It is the first central infrastructure facility for bioinformatics, genome research and high performance computing.

The new center will be equipped with “Next Generation Sequencing” methods that fully capture a biological sample from genome to epigenome to transcriptome. The resulting bioinformatic data shall be available to many scientific users. The infrastructure offers a range of services, in addition to sequencing services such as expert search, scientific advice and training, application advice and networking opportunities.

Professor Joachim L. Schultze, Deputy Speaker of the WGGC at the Bonn location, says: “With this network, we want to make a contribution to supporting the life sciences and medicine in Germany with the latest technologies in genome research and innovative computer-aided procedures. ‘Next Generation Genomics’ will fundamentally change medicine and the life sciences, and the WGGC should help to ensure that our science location remains internationally competitive.“

In addition to the WGGC, the DFG has set up three more NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) competence centers: the „NGS Competence Center Tübingen“ of the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen; the „DRESDEN-concept Genome Center“ of the Dresden University of Technology; as well as the „Competence Center for Genomic Analysis Kiel“ of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel. All in all, the four locations in Germany are being funded with 14 million euros plus a program flat rate.

More information: 
http://www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018/pressemitteilung_nr_06/index.html

Contact in Bonn: 
Prof. Dr. Joachim L. Schultze
Stellv. Sprecher des West German Genome Center, Bonn
Telefon: 0228/73-62787
office.immunogenomics@uni-bonn.de