The Institute of Virology was established in 1973 as a separate division of the Centre for Laboratory Medicine of Hannover Medical School. It was then led by Prof. J. Drescher who had already been in charge of diagnostic virology in the Division of Microbiology since 1967. In 1978 the Institute relocated to the ist present location on the 6th floor of the then new building "Klinisch-Theoretische Institute II" ("Theorie II"; see map). Since April 1st, 2000, Prof. T.F. Schulz has been head of department. In addition to our clinical virology service, multiple research activities are being developed in the area of molecular virology and the cell biology of viruses. Currently approximately 60 people are working in the Institute, of whom 9 are being funded by external research grants (mainly from the German Research Council, "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft").