The SCALE (SubCellular Architecture of LifE) research network at Goethe University (GU) with the participation of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) will in future receive funding from the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. The key technology - the “digital twin” - is located at FIAS. The TAM (The Adaptive Mind) network, led by the universities of Giessen, Marburg and Darmstadt with the participation of FIAS and GU, was also successful. Researchers at FIAS are developing computational models to better understand the brain's adaptation processes to everyday challenges.

The SCALE cluster initiative focuses on the building blocks of life: cells consist of billions of molecules, from single molecules to large molecular complexes and organelles. Although the functions of many molecules are now well characterized, it remains unclear how the cellular architecture arises, functions and how its components work together. The SCALE scientists want to uncover these self-organization principles of the cell.

At the heart of the SCALE project is the digital twin: a living computer model of the tiny structures and areas inside a cell. Such a virtual copy is not static, but changes and reacts dynamically, just like the original. The result is a simulation of the cell with high spatial and temporal resolution. FIAS Senior Fellow Roberto Covino compares this to a complex dance: “You have to see how all the individual dancers (the molecules) move and interact in order to perceive the entire performance (the biological function)”. The Digital Twin simulates this, helping to understand the incredibly complex cooperation of the molecules and how this leads to all the functions necessary for life.

The powerful computer simulations at FIAS are at the heart of this project: “The digital twin of the cell is the core project of SCALE,” emphasizes FIAS Fellow Franziska Matthäus. "FIAS is the home of the research groups working on this core project: This is where the research of tomorrow is done".

The approval of funding as a Cluster of Excellence by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2026 will allow FIAS to attract new independent research groups. FIAS brings together researchers from many different disciplines and with different expertise. This enables the creative exchange of ideas in order to best combine the various data collected with the help of powerful computer simulations.

The President of Goethe University, Enrico Schleiff, and FIAS Director Volker Lindenstruth congratulated the researchers on their success. The cooperation shows how lively the partnership on the science campus with the non-university research institutions is.

The Cluster of Excellence TAM, with the participation of FIAS Senior Fellow Jochen Triesch, decodes universal principles of human adaptability - as a team from psychology, cognitive and neuroscience and research into artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics at the universities of Giessen, Marburg and Darmstadt. In the long term, the researchers want to contribute to improvements in the field of mental health, but also to the development of more robust robotics and AI systems.

Triesch and his team are developing computer models for the cognitive development of infants and young children. They want to find out the mechanisms by which various cognitive abilities develop in the brains of young children and how a conscious mind ultimately emerges there. “Such models can also pave the way for artificial intelligence, which, like children, learns to understand its environment independently and autonomously,” explains the holder of the Johanna Quandt Professorship for Theoretical Life Sciences.

more information: 

https://scale-frankfurt.org/

https://aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de/unireport/zellulaere-architekturen-scale/

https://www.theadaptivemind.de/

Excellence Strategy: 

With the Excellence Strategy, the federal and state governments aim to support scientific excellence, profile building and cooperation in the science system. 70 out of a total of 143 draft proposals have now been approved for the “Clusters of Excellence” funding line. Clusters of Excellence can work on interdisciplinary research fields with a long-term perspective, further develop research and infrastructures together with non-university partners and increase the attractiveness of universities as research and study locations.