Between conservative and surgical intervention - 04/12/2025

Innovative tubular prosthesis enables reversible treatment for type 2 diabetes

Severe obesity is considered a major cause of type 2 diabetes. Building on gastric bypass surgery, the Mannheim-based company Trans-Duodenal Concepts has developed an endoscopically implantable tubular prosthesis that lines the duodenum. This both reduces food intake and can restore normal blood sugar metabolism.

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.

Dossier - 20/11/2025

Prevention as the key to health

Many serious illnesses can be prevented or at least mitigated through healthy lifestyles and early diagnosis. However, effective prevention requires holistic approaches at all levels of healthcare and the reinforcement of individual health literacy.

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

Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center and the University of Freiburg show how certain painkillers influence the iron metabolism of liver cancer cells and can thus contribute to iron deficiency and anemia in cancer patients.

The technology company KyooBe Tech GmbH and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on future research and development projects. The aim of the collaboration is to evaluate an innovative technology for inactivating pathogens using the specific effect of low-energy accelerated electrons (Low Energy Electron Irradiation—LEEI) and to make it available to DZIF scientists.

At the new Institute for Adaptive Mechanical Systems (IAMS) at the University of Stuttgart, the focus is on a new generation of walking robots and “soft robotics”. The researchers are developing adaptable robots inspired by natural movement patterns and made from innovative soft materials. The applications range from healthcare and industrial production to energy supply.

A new software enables brain simulations which both imitate the processes in the brain in detail and can solve challenging cognitive tasks. The program was developed by a research team at the Cluster of Excellence ‘Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science’ at the University of Tübingen. The software thus forms the basis for a new generation of brain simulations which allow deeper insights into the functioning and performance of the brain.

Light affects how we sleep, feel, and perform – yet public awareness of its impact remains limited. The Light for Public Health initiative aims to make evidence-based knowledge on light and health both accessible and actionable, thus turning scientific insight into public benefit.

A team from the DZHK sites in Heidelberg/Mannheim and Berlin has discovered that a single enzyme in the heart plays a key role in determining whether the organ develops in a healthy manner. If this molecular protective factor is missing, serious congenital heart defects can develop.

Endometriosis, menopause, ovarian cancer – still poorly researched and often misdiagnosed. Ângela Gonçalves combines AI, molecular biology, and clinical findings to develop non-invasive tools for early detection, personalized care, and healthier aging. The scientist from the DKFZ-Hector Cancer Institute is the winner of the Falling Walls Foundation's “Breakthrough of the Year 2025” award in the Women's Impact category.

In the PRECISION-ImmunoRad project, a multidisciplinary team of scientists from Heidelberg, USA, and Cyprus will unite their expertise to develop novel curative therapeutic strategies for currently hard-to-treat cancers. These strategies will integrate high-precision ion beam therapy with genetically engineered immune cells therapies (CAR-T cells), personalized cancer vaccines, and the targeted reprogramming of the tumor immune microenvironment.

Artificial intelligence: opportunities for healthcare - 06/11/2025

More than just deskwork: opportunities and obstacles for generative AI in healthcare

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has enormous potential in healthcare, ranging from automating time-consuming deskwork to supporting diagnoses. It is not just for the big players; there are also cost-effective ways for smaller companies and institutions to utilize GenAI.

LICIT Solutions completes Series A financing to accelerate the development and commercialization of next-generation sustainable active ingredients for hygiene, preservation, and protective applications LICIT Solutions GmbH, a spin-out from the Institute for Clinical Anatomy and Cell Analysis at the University of Tübingen, has successfully completed its Series A financing round.

Worldwide, almost one third of women of childbearing age suffer from bacterial vaginosis. Such a disorder of the vaginal flora can cause urogenital infections, abscesses on the ovaries or fallopian tubes or premature births. As part of a BW Sprint project, the DITF have laid the basis for the development of a panty liner that supports the health of the vaginal environment and can prevent bacterial vaginosis.

Researchers have developed a new method that greatly improves the accuracy of brain-state classification with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The brain-imaging technique fNIRS allows researchers to measure neural activity: Active brain cells need more oxygen, so variations in blood flow and oxygen saturation indicate which brain regions are at work. fNIRS detects these changes safely and without invasive procedures.

Ependymomas, brain tumors that occur particularly in young children, are especially difficult to treat and more than half of the children affected have an increased risk of relapse. As part of an international consortium, the KiTZ, the DKFZ, the MFHD and UKHD have received a grant of 1.5 million pounds sterling (GBP) from the British organization The Brain Tumor Charity to develop a new type of immunotherapy for ependymoma.

Developing replacement methods for animal testing is the main goal of the 3R network. One of three new 3R centres in Baden-Württemberg was launched at Ulm University at the beginning of the year and has now officially started work with a kick-off event. The abbreviation 3R stands for "Replace, Reduce, Refine", i.e. replace and reduce animal testing and improve the conditions for unavoidable animal experiments.

Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have achieved outstanding success at this year's world-leading forum for medical image processing and computer-assisted intervention. Two DKFZ departments competed in eight international AI competitions – and won seven of them. The successes cover key areas of oncology – from early detection and diagnosis to therapy support and follow-up care.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a new Emmy Noether project led by Jens Puschhof from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). With this project, the junior researcher aims to decipher the role of certain intestinal bacteria in the earliest stages of colorectal cancer development and investigate how this process can be halted. The long-term goal is to develop new preventive strategies against colorectal cancer.

The nationwide OnkoAktiv network, founded at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg, has been awarded the Baden-Württemberg Cancer Innovation Prize 2025. The prize recognizes OnkoAktiv for its pioneering role and groundbreaking contribution to the integration of exercise into oncological care.

Federal government awards 3.5 million euros in funding to the collaborative research project FLU-PREP. Researchers are developing methods to identify the pandemic potential of new viruses at an early stage.

Heidelberg researchers identify local outbreak indicators and develop new regional modeling approach. The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus infection – commonly known as bird flu – primarily affects birds. Mammals, however, are also increasingly infected. This increases the probability that the virus will cross over to humans.

Help for tracheostomy patients - 23/10/2025

Biomimetic speaking valve: how a carnivorous plant makes speaking safer

Nature is the best engineer, so they say, and it's always worth taking a closer look. An interdisciplinary group of researchers did just this and drew inspiration from an aquatic plant to develop a novel speaking valve for tracheostomy patients. At the University Medical Center Freiburg, Dr. Claudius Stahl and his team may have addressed a life-threatening issue that can arise in everyday clinical practice by creating a biomimetic valve with…

The committee of the Joint Science Conference of the federal government and federal states in its meeting cleared the way for the application submitted by ZEW Mannheim for a research programme focusing on the implications of the digital transformation for the analysis and the design of digital health care markets. This paves the way for an expansion of the Institute's activities by establishing an independent health economics research unit.

The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is supporting the “Sleep-Neuro-Path” research network with around 1.6 million euros. Coordinated by the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) in Mannheim, a team of scientists is investigating the role of sleep-related biomarkers in the development of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

A method developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB enables bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic pathogens in sepsis patients to be identified much faster than before and with the highest precision. The approach is based on high-throughput sequencing of cell-free DNA circulating in the blood and was honored with the EARTO Innovation Award in the "Impact Delivered" category on October 14,…

Dr. Andrea Toulouse from the Institute of Applied Optics receives €1.8 million in funding from the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung as part of the CZS Nexus program to establish a new junior research group. She conducts research in the field of micro-optics and fiber-based 3D printing. Her vision is to develop 3D printers that will one day be able to build biological tissue directly inside the body.

Tumors are not a comfortable place to live: oxygen deficiency, nutrient scarcity, and the accumulation of sometimes harmful metabolic products constantly stress cancer cells. A research team from the DKFZ and the IMP in Vienna has now discovered that the acidic pH value in tumor tissue is a decisive factor in how pancreatic cancer cells adapt their energy metabolism in order to survive under these adverse conditions.

EMBL scientists created SDR-seq, a tool for single-cell DNA-RNA-sequencing that studies both DNA and RNA simultaneously, linking coding and non-coding genetic variants to gene expression in the same single cell.

Until today, the aggressiveness of prostate cancer has been assessed primarily using the Gleason grading system—an analysis of cancer tissue in a pathology laboratory that is highly subjective. An international research team led by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) has now developed a novel, explainable AI model that aims to make the diagnosis of prostate cancer more transparent and less susceptible to error.

Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are insidious. They can evade the immune defence and antiviral drugs by becoming "latent". In this state, they are largely invisible and unassailable. As long as these dormant viruses persist, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. However, researchers at Ulm University Hospital have discovered a new way to reactivate latent HI viruses.

Using nanostructures to fight bacteria - 09/10/2025

Inspired by insect wings: antibacterial surfaces for implants

What do dragonfly wings and dental implants have in common? Nothing yet but that could soon change. The Karlsruhe-based start-up nanoshape has developed a process for coating medical implants with nanostructures similar to those found on insect wings. The coating makes surfaces bacteria-repellent and is aimed at reducing the risk of post-surgical inflammation. The first product could be on the market as early as next year.

An imaging technique developed by Freiburg researchers provides insights into cardiac arrhythmias that can cause sudden cardiac death in animal models. The changes discovered could explain why even seemingly healthy people are sometimes affected.