Rudolf Virchow
The center derives its name from the pathologist Rudolf Virchow, who was a professor in Würzburg from 1849 to 1856 and was the first to postulate that diseases originated in dysfunctions of cells. Researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Center aim to trace diseases back to dysfunctions of proteins. These are called target proteins because they may serve as targets for diagnostic tools or for therapeutic drugs. Research is organized in four fields: