Center for Systems Biology at Dresden (CSBD)

The Center for Systems Biology at Dresden (CSBD) is an initiative of the Max-Planck Society that was started in 2010 by the Max Planck Institute for Cell Molecular Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS). At that time, the institutes were given the opportunity to expand their interdisciplinary research program with a new director and three research groups jointly affiliated with both institutes. In response, the two institutes chose the concept of a joint Systems Biology Center. 

The concept was further developed over the next two years and then things got serious with searches for research groups and a director. Those searches lead to the selection of Gene Myers from the HHMI Janelia Research Campus as the founding director, and new group leaders Michael Hiller from Stanford University and Ivo Sbalzarini from ETH Zurich, all of whom arrived by the summer of 2012. Other groups from both the MPI-CBG and MPI-PKS also became affiliated with the center. In the summer and early fall 2012, the full organizational structure of the center was put in place.