Press release - 29/08/2025 Sleeping beauties: the biology behind oocyte dormancy The maturation process of oocytes remains paused for several years. Researchers from Konstanz and Göttingen have now found out which protein ensures this state is maintained over such a long period.
Press release - 28/08/2025 Inhibition of cell division induces immunoreactive peptides in cancer cells A team of scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Netherlands Cancer Institute has discovered a previously unknown vulnerability in cancer cells: When cell division is blocked with chemotherapeutic agents such as Taxol, cancer cells produce small immunogenic peptides that could open up new avenues for immune-based cancer therapies.
Press release - 26/08/2025 Key mechanism for Alzheimer's disease discovered A molecular mechanism that contributes to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease has been discovered by a research team of Heidelberg University. The team, using an Alzheimer’s mouse model, demonstrated that a neurotoxic protein-protein complex is responsible for nerve cells in the brain dying off and the resulting cognitive decline. This finding opens up new perspectives for the development of effective treatments.
Press release - 21/08/2025 Nanodroplets Could Speed Up the Search for New Medicine Until now, the early phase of drug discovery for the development of new therapeutics has been cost- and time-intensive. Researchers at KIT have developed a platform on which extremely miniaturized nanodroplets with a volume of 200 nanoliters per droplet and containing 300 cells per test can be arranged. This platform enables the researchers to synthesize and test thousands of therapeutic agents on the same chip, saving time and resources.
Press release - 21/08/2025 Ultrafast Pace in the Brain: New Insights into Calcium Transport and Signal Processing Researchers at the University of Freiburg, together with partners, have uncovered the mechanism of ultrafast transport by calcium pumps in nerve cells. These pumps, complexes of PMCA2 and neuroplastin proteins, operate at more than 5,000 cycles per second and terminate calcium signals within milliseconds – 100 times faster than previously known. They play a crucial role in rapid information processing in the brain.
Press release - 14/08/2025 Speeding up long-term memory Svenja Brodt uses MRI brain scans to investigate how impressions become memories. A better understanding of how long-term memories are formed could help Alzheimer's patients cope with their daily lives. Impaired memory formation could be compensated for by targeted repetition.
Press release - 14/08/2025 Freezing brain tumor cells in a dormant state Every brain tumor is made up of cells in successive stages of activation. Researchers have now analyzed the individual structure of these activation pyramids in malignant brain tumors. In doing so, they discovered a signaling protein that slows down the transition from a dormant to an activated state by epigenetically reprogramming the cells. The hope is that this will permanently freeze cancer cells in a dormant state and thus halt tumor growth.
Press release - 12/08/2025 Biomarkers for Brain Insulin Resistance Discovered in the Blood If the brain no longer responds properly to insulin (insulin resistance), this can lead to overweight, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the DZD in Potsdam and Tübingen have discovered small chemical modifications to genetic material (epigenetic changes*) in the blood that indicate how well the brain responds to insulin. These markers could help to detect insulin resistance in the brain – by means of a simple blood test.
Press release - 11/08/2025 The Cerebral Cortex Ages Less than Thought The human brain ages less than thought and in layers – at least in the area of the cerebral cortex responsible for the sense of touch. Researchers at DZNE, the University of Magdeburg, and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen come to this conclusion based on brain scans of young and older adults in addition to studies in mice.
Press release - 05/08/2025 Playing Dominos: how an artificial protein emerges from fitting together individual components The targeted engineering of artificial proteins with unique properties – that is possible with the assistance of a novel method developed by a research team of Heidelberg University. It centers around a new AI model. This allows for forecasting how two proteins have to be fitted together at the molecular level from individual parts – subunits – in order to engineer a functional, adjustable new protein.
Press release - 04/08/2025 FOXP1 syndrome: Potential therapeutic approach discovered for rare language development disorder FOXP1 syndrome is a congenital disorder in which the brain development of affected children is severely impaired due to a genetic variant. A research team from the Medical Faculty Heidelberg at Heidelberg University has now demonstrated in mice, that the inhibition of a specific enzyme in the brain can improve abnormal behavior and immune cell dysfunction in the brain. The results have been published in the journal Advanced Science.
Press release - 01/08/2025 Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection Tumors of the pancreas seldom cause symptoms in their early stages. This means that in many cases, they are not diagnosed until late, when the chances of successful treatment are poor. A new non-invasive diagnostic method designed by Fraunhofer researchers is set to make it possible to detect this aggressive form of cancer early on with high accuracy, significantly improving the prognosis for treatment.