Central projects
Z01 Central coordination
The tasks of this project are to support the CRC’s scientific work by managing budgets and facilitating interactions among researchers and projects. This includes the organisation of scientific and educational events to promote networking, career development, EDI (equality, diversity, and inclusion) measures, and collaborations within and beyond the CRC. Moreover, it provides the structural and organisational framework for public communication of scientific achievements, the dissemination of medical information on infertility, and the CRC’s international visibility. Finally, it sets up and orchestrates the specific governing bodies of the CRC.
Principal investigator
Z02 Science-clinics interface
The CRC’s projects rely on data and biosamples from infertile male patients, which are provided by this multidisciplinary project. The central tasks are to interconnect the scientific projects and departments that care for the respective patients and to ensure their systematic recruitment, as well as characterisation of patients and couples/biosamples beyond standard routine, using quantitative methods. It also serves as the CRC’s hub for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI). As an innovative angle, computer vision approaches drawing on novel machine learning algorithms will be developed for in-depth phenotyping of sperm cells and testicular tissues.
Principal investigators
Sabine Kliesch, Prof. Dr. med.
Centre of Reproductive Medicine and AndrologyMaria Schubert, PD, Dr. med.
Centre of Reproductive Medicine and AndrologyHeymut Omran, Prof. Dr. med.
Department of General PaediatricsBenjamin Risse, Prof. Dr. rer. nat.
Institut für Geoinformatik
Institut für Informatik
Z03 GenOMICs
The CRC’s research also relies on sequencing approaches and multi-faceted OMICs, such as genome, bulk/single cell RNA-seq, and spatial transcriptomics on cells and tissues from men with infertility, as well as the integrated analysis of the diverse datasets. This project will serve as the central platform to coordinate and perform the sequencing for the CRC projects, involving short- and long-read genome sequencing as well as single-cell and spatial applications. Standardised workflows and pipelines for the bioinformatics analyses will also be provided. Moreover, novel pipelines will be developed, tailored to the particular demands in the scientific projects.
Principal investigators
Monika Stoll, Prof. Dr. sc. hum.
Centre of Medical Genetics
Department of Genetic Epidemiology
Core Facility Genomics
Frank Tüttelmann, Prof. Dr. med.
Centre of Medical GeneticsDominik Heider, Prof. Dr. rer. nat.
Institute of Medical Informatics
INF Research data infrastructure for multi-modal analyses
This project provides the research data infrastructure for the CRC: the Fertility Data and Collaboration Hub (FeDCH) will be developed, storing the data and metadata, providing access to it in compliance with the FAIR principles, and accelerating the integrated analysis of clinical and OMICs data. Hosted on its large-scale Uni Cloud, the Centre for Information Technology provides the required performant and efficient solution for data storage, which guarantees data availability, sustainability, and reproducibility. Moreover, easy-to-use solutions for high performance computing (HPC) resources will be realised for efficient data analysis.
Principal investigators
Dominik Heider, Prof. Dr. rer. nat.
Institute of Medical InformaticsMichael Storck, Dr. rer. medic.
Institute of Medical InformaticsRaimund Vogl, Prof. Dr. rer.nat.
CIT - Centre for Information Technology
SC Science communication
This project serves as the central hub for the CRC’s communication of research on human reproduction, infertility, and medically assisted reproduction. Addressing researchers, healthcare professionals, patients, and the public, it will combine state-of-the-art tools with Participatory Science Communication (PSC) approaches, including diverse perspectives to inform, engage, and spark dialogue at the intersection of science, medicine, and society. The highlight will be the interactive travelling exhibition ‘LIFE – Stories of Human Reproduction’, which will premiere at Münster’s LWL Museum before touring Germany and beyond.
Principal investigators
Carla Schieb, Dr. phil.
Institute of Reproductive Genetics, Centre of Medical Genetics
Cristin Beumer, Dr. rer. nat.
Centre of Medical Genetics