Saarland University names Bergita Ganse new professor of experimental musculoskeletal medicine

The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.

At Saarland University, Bergita Ganse has been coordinating the 'Smart Implants' project since 2021, in which research teams from the fields of medicine, engineering and computer science are working together on tailor-made implants that control and actively promote fracture healing in the body. The Werner Siemens Foundation funded the project with eight million euros and is now providing an additional one million euros in support as it nears completion. The physician is collaborating on further research projects with the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the US space agency NASA. Her research projects are also funded by the EU, the European Regional Development Fund, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and federal ministries. 

In October 2025, the German Society for Trauma Surgery awarded Bergita Ganse its Innovation Prize for a novel method of monitoring fracture healing using commercially available measuring devices without X-rays. She has already received several awards for her teaching, including second place in the Homburg Medical Students' Association's University Teaching Prize. At Saarland University, she gives lectures on space medicine, among other topics, which are open to students beyond the field of medicine. 

About the person: 

Bergita Ganse studied human medicine at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Lübeck, where she received her doctorate in 2007. After working at the Charité in Berlin and the University Hospital of Cologne, she conducted research at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the German Aerospace Centre from 2011 to 2014 on the musculoskeletal system in space and on injuries and bone adaptation in senior athletes. She has been a specialist in physiology since 2014 and has also held the additional title of sports medicine since that year and emergency medicine since 2025. She has been a specialist in orthopaedics and trauma surgery since 2019. In 2019, she also qualified as a professor in experimental trauma surgery at RWTH Aachen University. 

From 2019 to 2021, she worked at Manchester Metropolitan University on a DFG research fellowship. During this time, Ganse conducted a bed rest study at the German Aerospace Centre in Cologne to investigate muscle loss in space in collaboration with NASA and ESA. The physician is currently working on a project at the Concordia Station in Antarctica on the subject of muscles and cartilage. 

Questions answered by:

Prof. Dr. Bergita Ganse 
Email: Bergita.Ganse(at)uks.euDeutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt über das muskuloskelettale System im Weltraum sowie über Verletzungen und Knochenadaptation bei Seniorenathleten. Seit 2014 ist sie Fachärztin für Physiologie, trägt seit jenem Jahr auch die Zusatzbezeichnung Sportmedizin und seit 2025 für Notfallmedizin. Seit 2019 ist sie Fachärztin für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie. 2019 habilitierte sie sich zudem in Experimenteller Unfallchirurgie an der RWTH Aachen. 

Von 2019 bis 2021 war sie mit einem DFG-Forschungsstipendium an der Manchester Metropolitan University tätig. Beim Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt in Köln führte Ganse in der Zeit eine Bettruhestudie durch, um zusammen mit NASA und ESA den Muskelabbau im All zu erforschen. Aktuell arbeitet die Medizinerin an einem Projekt auf der Concordia-Station in der Antarktis zum Thema Muskeln und Knorpel. 

Fragen beantwortet:

Prof. Dr. med. Bergita Ganse 
E-Mail: Bergita.Ganse(at)uks.eu