Judith Schweimer
Title
Fostering innovation in mental health: Bridging the gap between academia and industry
Abstract
At Boehringer, via our Open Science platform opnMe.com, we foster an environment that accelerates independent innovation and discovery by providing scientists access to selected, well-characterised, best-in-class molecules. Further, we also invite scientists to propose innovative solutions for a chance to obtain research funding either in relation to a specific molecule or for precisely formulated scientific questions.
Since establishing the opnMe innovation portal, in excess of 2.400 collaborative research proposals have been submitted and this enabled more than 140 partnerships with scientists worldwide and colleagues at Boehringer. Within the Discovery Research Neuroscience & Mental Health Department, we regularly host students for placements and internships to work on specific projects and provide new generations of young, talented scientists insight into research in the industry setting.
Further, through opnMe.com and other collaborations, we offer the opportunity to support talented scientists to conduct their research either at one of our discovery research sites or another host research institution.
Biography
I studied Biology at the University of Tübingen, soon I discovered neuroscience as a possibility within my degree and finished this first degree with a research thesis about the role of the BNST, a part of the extended amygdala and its involvement in fear and anxiety processing. After that I moved to the University of Stuttgart to pursue my PhD, by investigating how the anterior cingulate and its dopaminergic innervation are essential in specific tasks of decision making and instrumental learning.
For my first postdoc, I moved to London to look into potential novel treatments of multiple sclerosis at King’s College London. From there, I moved to Imperial College London to study how serotonin neurons process negative stimuli in vivo. With this expertise in in vivo electrophysiology, I went on to Oxford, to further investigate how serotonin and dopamine neurons may regulate mood disorders, and specifically in relation to treatment.
Besides the research, I held lectureships at an Oxford college and later at the University of St Andrews to teach the next generations of neuroscientists and medical students.
In 2022, I moved back to Germany to work in the CNS research department (now DR N&MH) at Boehringer Ingelheim as a Scientific Coordinator for external collaborations, where I support projects with scientific partners at universities and other research institutions. Further, I still lecture at the University of Ulm and supervise project students within the company.