Mission Statement

At University of Vienna, the unique Research Platform is running since almost one decade between the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Center of Sport Science and University Sports, in order to focus on research on ageing and lifestyle activities at cellular and molecular levels, which should also include educational training of graduate students embedded in a multidisciplinary research cluster. The platform is based on collaborative research and educational capacity from Nutritional Sciences (Emerging Field Oxidative Stress and DNA Stability), Pharmacy (Pharmacognosy, Molecular Target group), Sport Science (Sports Medicine, Exercise Physiology and Prevention as well as Nutrition, Exercise and Health) and the Austrian Institute of Sports Medicine (ÖISM). Health and Health promotion are major topics of both Faculties and represent a central intersection of the present as well as of future research perspectives.

The complementary expertise of the consortium members with background in nutritional sciences, pharmacy, sports sciences, exercise physiology, internal medicine and molecular biology and their national and international co-operations enables the view on ageing by different angles.

The Active Ageing platform comprises of six partners from the University of Vienna and various national and international associated co-operational partners. The partners combine scientific expertise in nutritional sciences, molecular nutrition, molecular biology, sports sciences, medicine, physiology, anatomy and methodological plurality ranging from basic cell culture techniques to clinical research studies with high-throughput data collection (microarray, proteomics, DNA damage). Furthermore the co-operations are enabling the team to translate pure science to the public, since the Kuratorium Wiener Pensionistenwohnhäuser (KWP) as cooperation partner and largest institution in Vienna hosts approx. 10.000 elderly in their houses.