Healthcare industry

Article - 07/06/2010

Biametrics – specialist in label-free bioanalysis

Biametrics is a spin-off from the University of Tübingen that focuses on the commercialisation of innovative developments in the field of label-free bioanalyses. The companys platform detects interactions between biomolecules using reflectometric interference spectroscopy RIfS and can be integrated into small mobile analytical devices.

Article - 02/12/2008

Cancer cells do not like rocket salad

Isothiocyanates which are substances found in vegetables such as rocket kohlrabi or mustard promote good health. Dr. Evelyn Lamy and her team at the Freiburg University Hospital found out that isothiocyanates lead to considerably fewer DNA strand breaks.

Article - 23/09/2013

Calcium and memory

Calcium in the nuclei of neurons controls the transcription of genes that play a role in the structural changes that are responsible for the formation of long-term memory. Neurobiologists at Heidelberg University have identified this cellular “switch” in Drosophila melanogaster and have used sensational experiments to analyse its function in the formation of the long-term memory of flies.

Article - 04/03/2010

Asthma and COPD – how to control centres of inflammation

In today’s world, not all asthma patients benefit from adequate treatment. There is no cure at all for people who suffer from COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A group of researchers led by Dr. Marco Idzko at the Freiburg University Medical Centre are looking for new strategies to treat lung diseases such as these. They have already discovered that ATP, which is the major energy currency molecule in the body, has an effect on the…

Companies of the German Medical Technology Association BVMed have founded the Cataract Initiative an information platform for patients and other interested parties that provides information on the benefits of modern intraocular lenses.

Article - 25/07/2011

Cell culturing as a taught subject: many more “Biberachs” are needed

Cell culture technology is only taught at a handful of universities. However, this interdisciplinary subject is the core of the “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” programme offered by the Biberach University of Applied Sciences. We talked about the subject with Professor Jürgen Hannemann, founding dean of the “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” programme, and with Professor Friedemann Hesse, who runs the “cell culture technology” teaching programme.

Article - 11/02/2013

Cholesterol boosts the memory of the immune system

Cholesterol has been demonised for a long time as high cholesterol levels are seen as major risk factors for atherosclerosis myocardial infarction and gallstones. However cholesterol is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes and is required for proper membrane function. It exists in huge quantities in the human body. In addition to being essential for cell survival and hence all animal life in general cholesterol also plays a crucial…

Article - 15/07/2010

A special focus on intercellular mediators

Transmembrane proteins constitute around one third of all cellular proteins. Around half of all drugs that are currently on the market target the function of a specific class of transmembrane proteins, i.e. the G-protein coupled receptors. However, little is yet known about how transmembrane proteins are integrated into the membranes and how they are folded. Dr. Jörg H. Kleinschmidt hopes to shed light into the mechanisms of membrane protein…

Article - 18/03/2010

Cancer treatment adapted to individual patient requirements

There is still no treatment available for a number of non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas. Chemotherapy, which is the standard method of treating the lymphomas, has unpleasant side effects. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Hendrik Veelken at the Freiburg University Medical Centre in cooperation with Freiburg-based CellGenix Technologie Transfer GmbH have developed a promising new treatment strategy. Results of the Phase I and the Phase II study, which has…

Article - 10/12/2012

A machine learning method for the prediction of regulatory interactions

Heidelberg bioinformaticians have developed a novel method for the automated prediction of regulatory interactions. The regulatory interaction predictor, a machine-learning based approach for predicting interactions between DNA-binding transcription factors and their target genes and obtaining important insights into the gene regulatory networks in complex cells.

Article - 28/10/2009

Christoph Schächtele – searching for cancer inhibitors

“You really have to enjoy the whole process,” said Dr. Christoph Schächtele, Director of ProQinase GmbH. It takes several years to turn an anti-cancer substance into a marketable product. And there is no guarantee that the hefty and onerous amounts of research work will eventually be successful. The biologist nowadays feels very comfortable at being at the interface of management and oncological research – his love for the profession enables him…

Article - 19/09/2011

Christian Buske and his research into leukaemia stem cells

A clinical accolade for a model: the gene signature of leukaemia stem cells allows predictions to be made on the course of disease in adults suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). A study carried out by an international team of researchers shows that AML contains cells with stem cell properties (leukaemia stem cells, LSC). The study also found that patients who strongly expressed the LSC signature had a much shorter survival time than…

Article - 29/11/2010

Against chronic liver inflammation and liver cancer

Chronic hepatitis B and C are the major causes of liver cancer. In contrast to hepatitis B viruses, there is no hepatitis C virus vaccination available. New research carried out by Professor Bartenschlager and his colleagues from Heidelberg might give rise to new strategies for the development of vaccines and medications for the prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infections.

Article - 16/04/2012

Christine von Arnim: the Alzheimer's researcher has a good overall view

“Memory is one of the most exciting research topics I know because it is so close to human reality”, says Christine von Arnim. The Alzheimer’s disease researcher from the University of Ulm is not the only researcher who is intrigued by the philosophy behind the research and interested in far more than just atomistic approaches. The young neurologist covers the entire field of Alzheimer’s research, from experimental laboratory research to patient…

Article - 11/02/2010

Bridges between university inventors and companies

The most successful companies are those with the strongest innovation power. In their search for new ideas life science companies are increasingly resorting to new inventions coming out of universities. For two decades the Technology Licensing Office TLB in Karlsruhe has been the prime contact for patents requested by Baden-Württemberg universities and in terms of success the TLB is Germanys best patent exploitation office. In the following…

Article - 29/10/2012

Friederike J. Gruhl – biology is not always enough

Researchers are usually only able to explore the development and growth of tumours with animal models. This is because many human cells lose their typical characteristics once outside the body. Friederike J. Gruhl from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT is working to create a biomimetic environment in Petri dishes in which prostate cells thrive and can be manipulated to become tumours for example - if required. The three-dimensional…

Article - 20/09/2011

Expansion and concentration in the biosimilars market

Europe is the leader in the global biosimilars business. The prospects are excellent as the patents of many innovator biopharmaceuticals, including therapeutic antibodies, have reached or are about to reach patent expiry. The profitable, though difficult biosimilars market, is increasingly dominated by a handful of financially strong companies.

Article - 24/02/2014

Enhanced feeling of well-being triggers regeneration

New biomaterials are all the rage – especially in the Department of Oral Biotechnology, which was established at the Dental School and Hospital at the Freiburg University Medical Centre in 2008. The department’s laboratory manager, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Steinberg, takes an approach that is inspired by clinical application and aimed at developing biomaterials that support the wound healing process. This approach must, of necessity, include basic…

Article - 11/10/2010

Georg Sprenger - virtuoso of bacterial metabolism manipulation

Microorganisms can be taught to do things that they are unable to do naturally. Bacterial metabolisms can be changed in order to make the bacteria produce new products and convert new substrates. In addition, existing bacterial conversion strategies can be optimised for biotechnological applications. Prof. Dr. Georg Sprenger is the head of the Institute of Microbiology at the University of Stuttgart and he is an expert in this field.

Article - 09/08/2010

Enzyme variants – designed on a virtual drawing-board

Sometimes it needs no more than a single mutation to make an enzyme convert a substrate that it previously did not interact with. There is an art to finding an amino acid position in the enzyme that can be mutated and changed in a way that results in the required outcome. But if the researchers succeed in doing so, they are able to ‘teach’ the enzyme to only convert a specific substrate variant or produce only one specific product variant. The…

Article - 30/04/2012

German Cardiac Society meeting 2012 - Medicine for sick hearts

The recent German Cardiac Society meeting in Mannheim in April 2012 focused on the latest findings related to the prognosis, diagnosis and therapy of heart diseases. While great progress has been made in the therapy of disease symptoms, it will still take a long time before gene and stem cell therapies that target the causes of disease find their way into clinical application. The conference also presented the new German Centre for Cardiovascular…

Article - 23/07/2012

Evolution of regenerative mechanisms and stem cell systems

Researchers from around the world participated in the first annual symposium organised by the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg in early July to discuss the evolution of the regenerative mechanisms and stem cell systems of plants and animals. Although stem cells and the multicellularity of animals and plants evolved independently from each other, their stem cell systems are nevertheless governed by the same principles.

The medical online learning programme by the Tübingen-based E-learning publisher INMEDEA GmbH simulates procedures and situations in different departments of a hospital with their respective typical patient groups.

The Expert Commission for Research and Innovation EFI established by the German government presented its first report on research innovation and technological capabilities to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan.

Article - 17/06/2013

Evolution of light perception networks in plants

Genetically identical plants develop rather differently depending on the light conditions in which they live. In the dark the plant grows in length in order to reach the sunlight needed for photosynthesis. Exposed to light the plant then switches to a different development programme becomes green and assembles its photosynthesis machinery. Prof. Dr. Andreas Hiltbrunner from the University of Freiburg is interested in finding out how the…