Selected press releases

When gene mutations are found in the tumor of cancer patients, it is often unclear whether they promote tumor growth or whether a targeted therapy could be effective. A research team led by the Medical Center - University of Freiburg has now compiled a catalog in which over 11,000 gene variants of a central gene family were examined and evaluated for their role in tumor growth.

Researchers at the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg, the German Cancer Research Center, the Heidelberg Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University, and Heidelberg University Hospital have taken a decisive step toward more precise diagnosis of brain tumors. The latest version of the AI-based Heidelberg CNS Tumor Methylation Classifier can identify more than 180 tumor types —twice as many as the previous version.

Inside cells, RNAs and proteins form biomolecular condensates. These droplets are essential for organizing cellular life, yet why some RNAs cluster more readily than others has remained unclear. Disruptions in condensate formation are linked to developmental defects, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers at KIT have now identified a new class of RNA called smOOPs and gained a better understanding of how biomolecular condensates form

It has only recently become known that two parallel systems of blood formation exist in the body. Researchers at the DKFZ have developed a method to examine both systems separately in mice for the first time. Their surprising finding: the majority of immune cells do not originate from classic blood stem cells in the bone marrow, but from precursor cells that are independent of blood stem cells and are already present in the embryo.

CELLnROLL is a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. The newly founded company develops a high-precision microrobotic-based cell sorting system to help clinicians make fast, affordable, and informed decisions for cancer diagnostics. Now, the project has received €865,000 in funding through the EXIST Transfer of Research program, a funding program initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Physician and cancer researcher Mirco Julian Friedrich from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the stem cell research institute HI-STEM*, and Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) has received two awards for two independent research projects: his novel approach to preventing liver metastases and his research on T cells, which he modifies to better protect them from attacks by natural killer cells.

With victims numbering in the millions, malaria is an infectious disease caused by the bite of a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite. After penetrating the skin, the pathogen moves with helical trajectories. It almost always turns toward the right, as a team of physicists and malaria researchers from Heidelberg University recently discovered.

He researches stress and ageing at the interface of psychology and biology and is a guest at Ulm University: Professor Martin Picard from Columbia University has been awarded the Hans Kupczyk Visiting Professorship 2025, which is based in the Department of Clinical and Biological Psychology this year. On the occasion of the awarding of the visiting professorship, Picard spoke about energy as the foundation of human health of body and mind.

Heidelberg University has been successful in the current approval round of the German Research Foundation (DFG) with three grant applications for major research consortia. In the life sciences and medicine, a Collaborative Research Centre working on the Wnt signaling pathway will enter its third funding period. Two transregional consortia with major participation by researchers from Ruperto Carola have also been extended.

In the current selection round, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has granted funding for two new Collaborative Research Centres at the University of Konstanz. Over the next four years, the research teams will be working intensively on trigger signals in biological cells as well as on "silence" and "noise" in human speech.

The Fraunhofer Industrial Quantum Computing Consulting and Testing Center INQUBATOR is implementing innovative, easy access offerings to help industrial users get started with quantum computing. The aim is to identify and evaluate new application-related use cases where the use of quantum computers promises a foreseeable advantage.

Sixteen leading life science and IT companies, all-new livestreamed presentations, and an informative career panel made for a successful EMBL Industry Day in its second year