The MTZ®-Award for Systems Medicine (formerly MTZ®-Award for Medical Systems Biology)

Systems Biology

Systems biology—which unravels complex, interconnected biological phenomena in cells, tissues, and organisms and translates them into realistic computer models—remains immensely important as basic research for the future of systems medicine. The central question is how complex biological systems, with their interconnected subprocesses, can function. Only in this way can the regulation and control of biological systems, their controllability, and their systemic behavior be understood and further unraveled. Physicians, biologists, bioinformaticians, and scientists from other disciplines collaborate in an interdisciplinary manner. The resulting models make it possible to directly simulate strategies and further hypotheses experimentally. These simulations are increasingly replacing time-consuming experiments with cell tissues in the laboratory (including animal testing) and contribute to faster and more effective research results—the new dimension of basic life sciences research.
In this way, our understanding of the functions of complex biological systems is expanding, increasingly enabling science to identify—in great detail—malfunctions as the cause of serious diseases. It is thanks to systems biology that we are able to understand tumor biology, including the proteomic* and morphological* characteristics typical of each tumor—a dynamic process of knowledge acquisition that continues to this day.The same applies to systems biology research into the respective genotype* in diabetes. In recent years, research has focused on the development of tumor and biomarkers that are used for diagnosis in current clinical practice. These are relevant to treatment and thus also form the basis for the development of drugs and vaccines.
Genotype*:
proteomic*: the totality of all proteins
morphological*: cell structure in medical imaging, now implemented in multiplex high-resolution fluorescence images (including 3D)

World-class medical research, such as systems biology and the mathematical modeling of biological systems, leads to an ongoing, dynamic accumulation of knowledge and—even today—to large volumes of data—“Big Data in Medicine.” The medicine of the future is inconceivable without artificial intelligence. Intelligent algorithms play a crucial role in linking biological systems with digitized clinical patient data. Systems biology has established itself as the essential form of basic research and a “data provider.” It will continue to serve as a bridge to a form of (systems) medicine that, with the help of AI-supported, so-called medically relevant use cases, enables a personalized approach to disease treatment in clinical practice. In the scientific community, systems biology and its significance as a translational research approach have become indispensable.

The first such algorithms are already being tested in everyday clinical practice and will, in the future, enable personalized diagnostic options, treatment strategies, and preventive approaches tailored specifically to each individual at the right time. Deep learning—that is, machine learning in medicine—for example, in cancer treatment at German university hospitals: AI learns the systems-biological genotype* (see the molecular information and medical imaging mentioned above) of a tumor and, in a second step, its changes based on treatment data from many patients. This initially enables a verified, individualized diagnosis and, as the disease progresses, precise treatment that takes the individual’s stage of the disease into account. Particularly in light of the many unwanted side effects of cancer therapies, this type of treatment optimization leads to an improved quality of life.

The algorithms are continuously validated and further developed in innovative ways. The focus will be on proposing solutions to previously unresolved clinical questions or unsolved scientific obstacles related to specific use cases that appear particularly promising and worthwhile for in silico modeling but still require further development. This will initiate systems biology research projects on previously unknown tumor/biomarkers (signatures) and on increasingly high-quality imaging data, thereby contributing to the value creation of the use cases.

You can see this and other examples on MTZ-TV. Systems medicine is up to the task of meeting new challenges, moving toward increasingly patient-tailored/personalized therapy that makes use of a user-friendly AI assistant—that is our vision for the medicine of the future.

Building a bridge from medical systems biology as basic research to AI-supported systems medicine with its typical translational use cases—we are embarking on this exciting journey in 2026 and in the coming years together with our long-standing, strong partner, the Federal Ministry of Research. This is at the heart of our mission, as evidenced by the national MTZ® Award for Systems Medicine (formerly the MTZ® Award for Medical Systems Biology). The award honors the three best dissertations; the most recent ceremony took place in May 2026 at the international SBMC conference held at the Baroque Palace in Mannheim. During the conference, the three award winners present their research approaches to a broad international audience of experts.

This award honors young scholarly excellence—those who, with curiosity and youthful enthusiasm, brave the sometimes rocky path of a researcher’s career and, through their doctoral work, contribute to future translation through an interdisciplinary approach.

• These include research approaches that, based on existing data sets, address clinically relevant challenges using innovative—and in particular AI-based—computer-aided methods, and that enable or further develop concrete applications for diagnosis, therapy, and prevention in ongoing BMFTR research projects (value-adding additions to existing use cases).
• These include research approaches that, through the development of new methods and software tools for the mathematical modeling and simulation of complex biomedical systems (classical basic systems biology research), address clinically relevant challenges for the first time and lay the groundwork for future applications (new use cases).
• The findings from the doctoral dissertations benefit the entire research community funded by the BMFTR in the field of systems biology/systems medicine.

The background to this is the BMFTR’s “High-Tech Agenda for Germany,” under which public funding is directed toward cutting-edge technologies and cross-cutting, technology-neutral initiatives. The goal of the High-Tech Agenda for Germany is to strengthen the ties between science, research, and industry. The aim is not only to conduct research; innovations must also increasingly be brought to market in the form of products, services, and processes.

■ Systems Biology

■ Systems biology deals of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research