The mission of the International Graduate School in Molecular Medicine (IGradU)

…. is to promote and support excellence in graduate training in the field of biomedical research. Modern concepts in Molecular Medicine utilize interdisciplinary approaches combining methods from the areas of molecular biology and genetics with those from informatics, mathematics, physics and engineering. To fulfil these requirements a doctoral training programme entitled International PhD Programme in Molecular Medicine was launched in October 2005 in order to support foster their scientific education and career. Major aims of this programme are:

  • to improve graduate training by creating an active, motivating, excellent and international research environment
  • to foster critical thinking and acting, creativity and personal responsibility
  • to encourage graduates to develop their own ideas, discuss them in an open forum and to convert them into meaningful action
  • to generate an international environment within which students can work with tolerance and respect for people from different cultural backgrounds
  • to encourage graduates to carry out independent scientific research by adopting a multilevel supervision and mentoring approach
  • to guide graduate education by establishing a definitive and transparent programme structure
  • to advance graduate career opportunities in the academic world and in industry

Contact

International Graduate School in Molecular Medicine Ulm

 

Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, O25, rooms 425&406
89081 Ulm
Germany
Fax: +49 (0)731)-50- 36292

igradu(at)uni-ulm.de

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  Phone: Room
Lina Zaveleva +49 (0)731)-50- 36290 425
Christiane Böhm +49 (0)731)-50- 36294 406
Katja Ahmann +49 (0)731)-50- 36293 425

Office hours: Tuesday 08:30 - 11:00 a.m. & Thursday 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

Letterbox: next to Room no. 425

Students can join IGradU in spring and fall of each year during our selection days. 

The formal admission requirements are these:

  • A Master of Science degree (or equivalent) in either the life sciences, physics, chemistry, informatics or a related field.

  • An overall grade of 2.0 or better according to the German grading system.

  • Students have already a PhD position at a research group at Ulm University or the University Medical Center

For detailed information ⇒

The International PhD programme in Molecular Medicine started in 2005 with only 7 students, funded by scholarships from the Medical Faculty of Ulm University. In 2007, IGradU was one of 45 Graduate Schools funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). After several evaluations IGradU, who established and managed by Prof. Dr. Michael Kühl (Chairman) and PD Dr. Dieter Brockmann (managing director) until 2019, turned into a permanent structure at Ulm University funded by the DFG, the Ulm university and the medical faculty. In 2019, the DFG stopped funding graduate schools, so funding was secured by the State of Baden-Württemberg, Ulm University and the Medical Faculty at Ulm University.

What are our most important achievements and programs?

We have established six Research Training Groups (RTGs) covering the different topics in Molecular Medicine present at Ulm University. Each PhD student is supervised by a Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) consisting of at least three members, one of whom comes from outside Ulm. IGradU is the umbrella organization for the training of PhD students from a large variety of collaborative research centres (SFBs) funded, for instance, by the DFG or the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), such as the CRC1149 – Danger Response, Disturbance Factors and Regenerative Potential after Acute Trauma, CRC1074 – Experimental Models and Clinical Translation in Leukemia, and SyStaR – Molecular Systems Biology of Impaired Stem Cell Function and Regeneration during Aging, CRC 1279: Exploiting the Human Peptidome for Novel Antimicrobial and Anticancer Agents, CRC 1074: Experimental Models and Clinical Translation in Leukemia to mention just a few. We have enhanced our international outreach strategy by establishing several joint PhD programs with international Universities and by our guest professor programme. We have also implemented a diversity of gender programmes to support PhD students with children or female students during pregnancy. IGradU runs different mentoring programmes, including the well-known M4M-program (Mentoring for Molecular Medicine) in which senior citizens of Ulm offer support for our students and especially for those from abroad so that, from the time of their arrival in Germany until their disputation, these mentors can help to facilitate their integration into German society and culture. In addition, we have established a Junior Faculty to promote the scientific career of postdocs and group leaders.

How do we measure the success of our training programmes as well as that of the Graduate School? Of course, publications are only one side of the coin, and our students generally publish three to four papers in international peer-reviewed journals while completing their thesis. However, their future life and scientific career are of even more importance to us. We are proud that our alumni continue their career in well-known and highly ranked scientific institutions such as Harvard Medical School (USA), Stanford University School of Medicine (USA), Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, USA), McGill University (Canada), ETH Zürich (Switzerland) or Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum DKFZ (Germany). Moreover, international global pharmaceutical companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim and Roche, are also highly interested in our graduates.

Link to the beginnings and former cooperation...

 

  • The KEMAI Research Training Group of the IGradU seeks to recruit 15 new PhD students in the area of explainable AI in medicine (m/f/d)
  • Biotech Startup at the University Hopital Ulm is looking for a Protein Production Specialist (m/f/d)
  • The department for clinical and biological psychology at the Institute for Psychology and Pedagogy is looking for an academic employee (m/f/d)

Open positions at Ulm University and the medical center Ulm are linked.