Angela Merkel opened the new MDC research building for the Berlin Institute for Molecular Systems Biology

“Be proud of your gem,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel. She was referring to the brand new research building, which was being ceremoniously opened today, a stone’s throw from existing ministries and hospitals.

With the new research and laboratory building for the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine now has a second location in the heart of Berlin, in addition to the Buch campus. “This building is an example of how research can only be carried out across disciplines,” said the Chancellor.

“Scientific excellence and internationality go hand in hand – it is important to work also across the borders of institutions and countries,” said Merkel. In the lab, she met three young scientists how explained their research on single cells. She said she would meet French President Emmanuel Macron tomorrow and “travel to Paris tomorrow to report on my experiences here” – not least because artificial intelligence is a focus of cooperation between the two countries.

The German government and the state of Berlin supported the BIMSB early on, said Merkel. As a pilot project of the funding initiative "Excellence in Research and Innovation in the New States", it shows what "has happened in thirty years of German unity and what has become possible". Health research is a particular concern of the government and she will personally support it, because “we have made long-term commitments and it is these commitments that determine our future.”