Healthcare industry

Frank Kirchhoff an AIDS researcher from Ulm has learnt to pose important questions and find the right answers during his post-graduate studies. This recipe has brought him and his research group international recognition and makes him one of the best AIDS researchers worldwide. Important publications within a very short time and numerous awards are clear evidence of his outstanding achievements. In addition he has just started a clinical trial…

Investments in research and development play a particularly important role in this highly innovative industry. However the introduction of innovations in reimbursement systems requires further improvements.

Proposals must be submitted by 30 September 2008.

The first Web log was initiated in 1991. Since then an ever increasing number of scientists have been using these Internet diaries to communicate knowledge report about science comment on it and classify it. Web logs are an enrichment for science communication.

Proposals have to be submitted by 1 December 2008.

About a year ago Prof. Dr. Martin Schwemmle and his team at the University Hospital of Freiburg discovered a new starting point in the fight against the H5N1-virus. In the meantime the scientists are working together with the company Pike Pharma to develop a compound.

Due to high safety requirements the development of medical and pharmaceutical products takes a long time and requires a lot of money - a situation that often puts off investors. The High-Tech Gründerfonds provides a solution to this situation.

Press release - 28/07/2008

The processing of olfactory cues in animals

Olfactory researchers have received the go-ahead for a DFG priority programme coordinated by the University of Constance. Funding will be provided for research projects dealing with animals sense of smell and what happens in the brain during this process.

Press release - 27/07/2008

White blood cells with 'icing' work far better

Scientists from Heidelberg Munich and Aachen have shown that the adhesion molecules required by leukocytes to adhere to vascular walls depend on sugar chains for effective immune defence reactions to occur. The results could open up new strategies for the treatment of inflammatory processes.

The world is full of questions and is sometimes difficult to understand for children. In the lectures delivered at Tübingens Childrens University scientists explain science and mathematics history or business management in a simple way and in relation to everyday life.

The Centre of Innovation Entrepreneurships activities consist of a broad spectrum of different well-matched modules. One of its core activities is the organisation of boot camps a new method supporting the establishment of new companies.

In the competition for the rather sought-after award Science City the city of Constance had to surrender albeit marginally to the city of Oldenburg. This is however no reason for Constance to abandon the planned Science Year 2009.

Using a multiple sclerosis MS animal model and a new magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent neuroradiologists and neurologists at the University Hospitals of Heidelberg and Würzburg succeeded in visualising tissue damage that was previously indiscernible.

At the XX International Congress of Genetics in Berlin the members of the International Genetics Federation IGF elected Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordheim from the University of Tübingen president.

On the 1st of July 2008 a new Collaborative Research Centre SFB 773 was launched at the University of Tübingen to look into the Therapy resistance of solid tumours and potential remedies. In order to clarify the basic mechanisms in the development of resistance the German Research Foundation DFG has granted the researchers a total of 9.1 million euros in funding over a period of four years.

In the EU it is mandatory to adequately label genetically modified food or animal feed. But how can producers make sure that their products are free from genetically modified organisms? The company Eurofins GeneScan GmbH from Freiburg can help.

Martin Wabitsch has received the Science Award of the city of Ulm. Wabitsch head of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University Hospital of Ulm received the award for his research on the consequences of adipositas at a young age.

Claus Schwechheimer at the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Tübingen has succeeded in identifying a protein function in plants which if it is understood might lead to important progress in human cancer research.

Prof. Dr. Michael Bach from the University Eye Hospital in Freiburg calls scepticism one of his major hobbies. His scepticism developed in the 1970s and 1980s through his contact with researchers at the former Freiburg Institute of Parapsychology and it is now an integral part of his work into functional vision research and the way he deals with everyday phenomena. Good scientists have to question everything sometimes even their own perception…

Dr. Vladimir Katanaev a biologist at Constance University is investigating an intracellular signalling pathway that is of decisive importance for the embryonic development of multicellular organisms. The Wnt-Frizzled signalling pathway also plays an important part in the development of cancer.

The Life Sciences Faculty and the Senate of at Ulm University were unanimous in awarding Kurz the honorary professorship at the University of Ulm. Kurz has been an external member of the University Council since 2003 and vice-chairman since 2006.

SciLife is a new virtual presentation and communication platform for the scientific community. The platform is now also available free of charge to researchers who want to increase networking activities and who are looking for equipment and researchers.

Dossier - 15/07/2008

Science communication: why science is becoming more and more public

Science needs publicity. Publicly funded research has to account for its projects internally as well as externally. In the past accounting for projects was a matter dealt with in courtly or academic circles today the forum is research journals. This internal communication seldom reaches the public however external communication seeks out the wider lay audience - for many reasons.

What is the difference between knowledge and science? Why did the biotech bubble develop in the first place? Find out more as we talk to the freelance science journalist Sascha Karberg.

The experimental operating theatre at the University Hospital in Tübingen is currently attracting nationwide attention. The simulation and testing laboratory was officially opened on the 14th July by Minister President Günther H. Oettinger.