Leibniz Graduate School on Ageing and Age-Related Diseases (LGSA)

The LGSA is a joint activity of the Leibniz Institute for Age Research (FLI) and the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) in Jena. The program started in fall 2006. The LGSA provides ambitious training and research opportunities for graduates who wish to obtain a PhD in the fields of Molecular Biology, Molecular Genetics, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Neurobiology, Structural Biology, Biophysics or Systems Biology.

Training and research within the PhD program is interdisciplinary with the endeavor to understand the multifaceted mechanisms that cause the development of age-related diseases and those that cause senescence and aging.

We provide excellent research conditions where several scientists such as biologists, biochemists, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians, physicians, physicists and veterinaries work together. Lectures by resident and guest scientists, practical courses and training in presentation skills will accompany the program. The courses of the LGSA are held in English. Eligible are students that have obtained, or that will obtain within half a year, an academic degree comparable to the master degree or diploma in life sciences, chemistry, physics or other related fields.

All Graduate Programs and PhD-students at the FLI will be integrated into the LGSA, following the same procedures and rules . The doctoral degree is supplemented with a Graduate School certificate.

Ageing is a complex stochastic process based on genetic contributions as well as environmental influences. The process is still ill-understood. The Leibniz Graduate School on Ageing and Age Related Diseases (LGSA) in Jena will strengthen research on the mechanisms of decisive processes, in particular pathological processes which lead to consequences for health and healthy ageing.

The research topics will focus on two sections. The cellular and organismic senescence covers genome stability, identification of genes involved in ageing,  gene regulation and stem cell ageing. In the other section the mechanisms leading to specific age-associated diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, kidney failure, immunosenescence and cancer are under investigation.

The experimental methodology ranges from genomic approaches, protein biochemistry, structure analysis and cell culture to animal models of disease.