We celebrate Detlev Ganten's 75th birthday late this March (Fig. 1); we hope he is celebrating too. Detlev Ganten is not only founding editor of the Journal of Molecular Medicine and still active in this capacity, he is also the initial director of the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch. The MDC traces its heritage to the KaiserWilhelm Institute für Hirnforschung, officially founded 1931. The collaboration between Nikolai TimofejewRessovsky, Karl Zimmer, and Max Delbrück that resulted in placing genetics on a molecular footing has been told many times. When the institute was reconstituted after German reunification, Detlev Ganten was given the task of resurrecting the MDC to world-class. And so he did; for 13 years, he was at the helm. Since its founding, 25 years have passed and the MDC has performed even beyond Detlev Ganten's expectations. Of course, since his first two publications appeared in Nature [1] and in Science [2], he probably believes that such publications are easy, as they were for him.Detlev Ganten gave the MDC a unique mission, namely pursuing the highest caliber of disease-oriented (clinical) biological research focusing on the basic mechanisms and molecules of relevance in health and disease and emphasizing the most advanced methodologies in cell biology, genetics, and genomics. He was less interested in the topic and wisely supported the idea that the MDC should pursue a broad spectrum of problems comprising the current chronic scourges, namely cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Similarly circumspect, the MDC has maintained this broad base until the present day.Another unique decision Detlev Ganten made was to include clinicians in the field of MDC senior scientists. As the institute had a tradition of encompassing clinical departments since the time of Oskar and Cécile Vogt, the decision was made easier. The institute had continued that tradition and before German reunification had worked intensively with a clinic dedicated to cancer and a clinic for cardiovascular diseases in the framework of the BAcademy of the Sciences^. However, although the clinics were still there, the framework was gone and to continue the concept in conjunction with the two medical schools Berlin had in 1991 was difficult. Furthermore, the mission Detlev Ganten espoused was not necessarily commensurate with the usual department chairmanships in academic medicine. Clinical excellence, teaching, and research were the appropriate criteria of the time; however, Detlev Ganten wanted the order and emphasis revised and reversed. Research at an internationally competitive level was to receive priority, yet the clinical departments also had to work; the patient care had to be excellent, and the teaching mission was not to be ignored. He found his clinicians and the search also underscores the value of personal relationships when making personnel decisions.