Max Planck Forum visits the Israeli Embassy

Alon Chen talks about his research about stress processing. One of his colleagues addresses the issue of mental health in city dwellers.

Israel is among the Max Planck Society's most important research partners. This has been the case ever since 1959, when then President Otto Hahn was among the first Germans to visit Israel after the holocaust. One of the goals of establishing scientific partnerships was to contribute to reconciliation. And this has been successful. During the Max-Planck-Forum that took place in Berlin last Thursday, Alon Chen, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, demonstrated the effectiveness of the German-Israeli research network. Thanks to a special agreement between the Max Planck Society and the Weizmann Institute, Alon Chen is able to do research work at both facilities that also cooperate very closely in other areas of research. The Max-Planck-Forum took place in a special setting, as ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff welcomed the visitors to his residence, which is usually only open for small diplomatic events.

At the beginning of the event, Alon Chen gave an insight into current research about biochemical and neurological processes that occur in response to stress. We are all familiar with stress, however, it is unknown, why stress causes mental illness in some people, and top performances in others. The reasons for this are genetically and epigentically controlled biochemical processes in the body, which science is now beginning to understand in detail. It is known that chronic stress increases the risk of mental and physical illnesses. This is reason enough to explore and improve the understanding of stress reactions and causes of stress.

Research is dedicated to identifying and describing stress factors and physiological processing of stress. The evening's second guest revealed how complex the issue really is: psychiatrist Mazda Adli, Director of the Fliedner Clinic in Berlin and an expert in the development of mental health treatment methods for city dwellers. He initiated a group called 'Neurourbanistik' (neuro-urban studies), to investigate which aspects of city life are particularly stressful, and which environmental factors are especially health threatening. The group's results may be integrated directly into urban planning of the future. For example when making decisions about whether and which public areas should be developed. Many urban planners are probably not aware at this point, to what extend a reduction of all types of green areas can lead to increased health risks.

The around 100 invited guests, who were experts representing ministries and the health sector, had many questions for the two speakers. To round off the evening, the embassy had invited the guests to a reception, during which many conversations could be continued and German-Israeli relations could be solidified.