(See also the the sections on "Funding" and "Publications".)

We are specifically interested in health and prevention, investigating the molecular basis of aging processes (Fuellen et al., Aging and Disease, 2019).

A core element of our work is to identify new biomarkers. In population studies this may be genetic variations. For patients this may be a particular profile of the transcriptome that is seen in conjunction with clinical phenotypes. The challenge is to constrain an avalanche of data from patients and from public resources towards a much smaller set of molecular interactions that can be experimentally investigated.

Along these lines, the IBIMA has developed concepts („Pathway Maps“, “FocusHeuristics”, “ExprEssence”) to map disease expression data to public molecular network data and then derive a network (Möller et al., Aging-US, 2020) (Ernst et al., Scientific Reports, 2017). We are also interested to learn how to adopt these principles to best compare changes to the transcriptome of diseases with changes known to be induced by drugs, and further by combinations of drugs (Struckmann et al., Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2020).

The Biostatistics Division of the Institute for Biostatistics and Informatics in Medicine and Aging Research at Rostock University Medical Center focuses on the application of statistical methods across all areas of medical research.
This requires a solid methodological foundation to ensure that scientific findings can be reliably obtained, evaluated, and interpreted. Biostatistics supports researchers in the careful planning of studies, the targeted collection, processing, and quality assurance of data, as well as in the statistical analysis and interpretation of research results.

A central component of our work is collaboration across different disciplines. We place great emphasis on close interdisciplinary cooperation with medical research partners, respectful dialogue, and the clear communication of complex statistical relationships.

In addition, the Biostatistics Division supports the transfer of scientific findings into medical practice. By teaching the methodological foundations of biostatistics and epidemiology, we also provide an important qualification for scientific work in the context of evidence-based medicine.