Research

150 years ago, Rudolf Virchow proposed the concept of "cellular pathology". This concept postulated that the cell is the smallest functional unit of a living organism and the origin of pathology: i.e. that malfunctions of cells lead to disease. Today, we are investigating factors causing disease on an even smaller scale, looking for culprits among the tens of thousands of different proteins encoded by the human genome. Some proteins are particularly important for cellular function, and thus disease, making them potential therapeutic targets.

The Rudolf Virchow Center for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging (RVZ) is an interdisciplinary research center focusing on visualization of elementary life processes from the subnano to the macro scale. As a central institution of the University of Würzburg, located at the medical campus of the University of Würzburg, the RVZ is currently home to 12 research groups with an interdisciplinary and translational research focus, and to about 100 scientists who investigate the molecular causes of health and disease. Our scientists have pioneered and established methods and technology concerning structural biology, (super-resolution) fluorescence, proteomics and mass spectrometry.