Max Planck Schools offer young researchers a special introduction to science: access to excellent infrastructure, collaboration with renowned scientists and a unique network.. Now, the fourth institution of this kind, the Max Planck School of Biomedical Artificial Intelligence, has been founded. It aims to investigate fundamental scientific questions at the interface of biomedicine and artificial intelligence. To this end, excellent and internationally renowned scientists have been recruited as fellows.

The fellows are internationally recognised researchers from 24 institutions and come from a wide variety of fields, ranging from image and speech processing to immunology. The new school is supported by researchers from the Technical University of Darmstadt, the Technical University of Berlin, the universities of Bonn, Leipzig, Saarbrücken and Tübingen, the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg and the Leibniz Institute for Virology.

‘I am delighted that our participation in the Max Planck School of Biomedical Artificial Intelligence will enable us to further expand our extensive network in the field of artificial intelligence,’ said TU President Professor Tanja Brühl.

“I would like to congratulate Professor Gurevych on this great success. We are contributing our research strength as TU Darmstadt to a network of proven partners in order to develop forward-looking answers at the interface between life sciences and artificial intelligence through interdisciplinary collaboration. Our participation in the Max Planck School also represents a conviction we live by: new ideas and groundbreaking innovations arise in strong teams. Changes for tomorrow and solutions for major transformation tasks are possible where partners with complementary strengths come together. At TU Darmstadt, we are shaping this network with commitment and passion – in collaboration with partners in Germany, Europe and worldwide. We are also demonstrating the added value of networking in the Rhine-Main Universities Alliance (RMU) – and look forward with hope to the next steps in our network.”

“The UKP Lab of the Technical University of Darmstadt is excited to be part of the research area 'Neural Networks Exploration'”, says its Head Professor Iryna Gurevych. ”Natural neuronal networks differ fundamentally from artificial neural networks. Disease-related alterations of the former manifest as changes in cell-type composition, connectivity motifs, and network organization. This requires new large-scale machine-learning methods capable of multimodal data integration including molecular, cellular and connectomic data. Collaboration of AI and biomedical experts offers unprecedented opportunities to advance both machine learning and life sciences."

Hesse's Minister of Science Timon Gremmels is delighted about TU Darmstadt's involvement: “Professor Iryna Gurevych is an internationally recognised expert in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. Since 2021, she has held the first LOEWE professorship awarded by the Ministry of Science. Her expertise will enrich the new Max Planck School. As the state government, we are actively supporting the future-oriented field of AI – both by promoting excellent research and by collaborating with business and industry. TU Darmstadt plays an outstanding role here.”

With the successful acquisition of the Reasonable Artificial Intelligence Cluster of Excellence, the university has proven its excellence in AI research. In addition, the university is home to a new permanent location of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence. ‘All of this demonstrates Hesse's research strength in AI – I warmly congratulate you on this success!’

Renowned researchers at TU Darmstadt have long been working on methods of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analysis. Among other things, they are investigating how AI can evaluate large medical data sets, for example from imaging or genomics. Participation in the new Max Planck School confirms TU Darmstadt's research strength in the field of AI and demonstrates the international visibility of this work. Activities are also being continuously expanded – including in the Reasonable Artificial Intelligence (RAI) Cluster of Excellence, the Hessian Centre for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI), through close cooperation with the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the Konrad Zuse School of Excellence in Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELIZA) graduate school. The new Max Planck School further strengthens this interdisciplinary research and opens up opportunities for new collaborations.

The aim of the new school is to establish a graduate programme that produces advanced AI methods for basic research in the life sciences and at the same time opens up prospects for later translational applications, said Karsten Borgwardt from the coordinating Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and spokesperson for the new school. “I am very much looking forward to deepening scientific collaborations with experts at other non-university research institutions and universities within the framework of the school and to jointly training promising doctoral students. Our network brings together research institutes and universities from eleven federal states – in line with the motto of the Max Planck Schools, which is to pool scientific excellence across regional and institutional boundaries.”

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