Healthcare industry

Article - 15/10/2012

ERC Starting Grants 2012: Baden-Württemberg achieves above-average success

On September 10th 2012, the European Research Council (ERC) announced the results of the fifth funding round of its Starting Grants. Baden-Württemberg was awarded 13 grants, and is the state with the largest number of a total of 34 grants awarded to German life sciences researchers. Baden-Württemberg life sciences researchers will be receiving Starting Grants worth around 20 million euros.

Article - 27/06/2011

New therapeutic approaches: nitric oxide for the treatment of brain tumours

Researchers led by neurosurgeon Dr. Astrid Weyerbrock from the Freiburg University Medical Centre are working on the improvement of therapies for the effective treatment of glioblastomas that involve deciphering the biological mechanisms that lead to these complex brain tumours. They are using a volatile molecule that is also found in the earths atmosphere.

Article - 27/04/2009

Roland Eils – a mathematician surrounded by molecular biologists

Not that long ago the Mathematical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg rejected his doctoral thesis but now Roland Eils is professor at the very same faculty. The mathematician whose doctoral thesis was ahead of its time and his two research groups at the University of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ work in the fields of systems biology and oncology. Eils is also one of three founding directors of the systems biology…

Article - 06/06/2011

Review: “DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance Forum on Aging & Cancer” in Heidelberg

At the DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance Forum 2011 recently held in Heidelberg internationally leading molecular and cell biologists cancer researchers and epidemiologists presented their latest results on the ageing of cells and organisms and the development of cancer.

Article - 30/06/2014

The German National Cohort: collecting data for a healthier future

A large-scale long-term cohort study will be carried out to explain the causes of widespread diseases, in particular cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes, and to identify the risk factors that lead to or favour the development of a certain disease. The principal objective of the German National Cohort (GNC) is to create the conditions that enable the development of new strategies for the prevention, risk assessment and early…

Article - 14/06/2010

Promoters for the construction of genetic circuits

Gene switches or promoters are crucially important for the regulation of all cellular activities and thus play a pivotal role for researchers constructing externally controllable genetic circuits using synthetic biology methods. The most common artificial regulatory system uses the Tet technology and tetracycline-sensitive promoters invented by Bujard and his team.

Article - 10/07/2010

Membrane proteins and the import business of mitochondria

The powerhouses of cells are surprisingly dependent on external help. More than ninety per cent of all proteins required by the mitochondria are produced outside the outer mitochondrial membrane. How are these proteins transported across the membrane and how do they find their way into the mitochondria? A group of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Chris Meisinger at the University of Freiburg has been investigating the role of large protein complexes…

Prof. Christoph Cremer Cremer hopes to use the Vertico-SMI nanoscope to decipher the molecular secrets of cells. After the 4Pi microscopy this system is the second development of his scientific career to break through the barrier of optical microscopy.

Article - 19/08/2013

The Heidelberg practice of whole-genome sequencing

After two years’ work, scientists from Heidelberg have now presented their opinion on the ethical and legal consequences of the total sequencing of the human genome. The paper presents principles and practical recommendations aimed at maintaining the balance between the wellbeing and interests of patients on the one hand and the freedom of research and clinical progress on the other.

Dossier - 05/10/2011

Biosimilars: follow-on biologics of innovator biopharmaceutical products

As blockbuster biopharmaceuticals go off patent, biosimilars are increasingly competing with them for a market share. However, the production of biosimilars is rather complex and costly. The approval of biosimilars is also subject to many hurdles. Their introduction to the very expensive biopharmaceuticals market is often associated with marginal price reductions.

Article - 09/10/2019

Epigenomics from the Cyber Valley

Cyber Valley Stuttgart-Tübingen is a European hotspot for artificial intelligence and home to many renowned experts and scientists. They are now joined by Gabriele Schweikert, who heads up the Computational Epigenomics research group in the Cyber Valley’s Division of Computational Biology. Schweikert is interested in exploring epigenetic mechanisms using machine learning methods.

Dossier - 12/03/2012

Regenerative medicine makes use of patients’ own resources

Regenerative medicine offers new therapeutic options for many diseases in which organ function or structure are damaged or lost. The majority of regenerative therapies involve cell-based methods that are often combined with innovative biomaterials. Regenerative therapies combine know-how from the biosciences with state-of-the-art medical technology and also benefit from progress in the engineering and material sciences.

The basic classification of bilateral animals is based on the comparison of their embryonic development and was confirmed in modern molecular phylogeny by the analysis of the relationship of the genes involved. Conserved groups of genes are responsible for the formation of the body axes.

This year’s presentations at the “Science meets Business Day 2009” once again showed that the exchange between science and the industry in the BioValley works extraordinarily well. The “Science meets Business Day 2009” concluded this year’s BioValley Life Science Week, where researchers from five completely different disciplines and their industrial partners presented their views on what makes the economic location in the area bordered by…

Article - 13/03/2010

Assembling life from building blocks?

As part of its “Bioethics Forum”, the German Ethics Council recently held a meeting in Berlin to inform the public about the fundamentals of synthetic biology and potential ethical problems and consequences in terms of our ideas about life and mankind in general arising from the progress made in this new field of research.

Article - 04/04/2011

FreiBiotics GmbH – new drugs against resistant bacteria

Bacteria adapt quickly to their environment and also to antibiotics. Many of the antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections have become ineffective as a great many bacteria have become resistant to them. Freiburg-based FreiBiotics GmbH is looking for completely new classes of antimicrobial substances. A screening method that has been developed over the last few years based on biosensors makes the identification of new substance classes more…

Karin Scharffetter-Kochanek dermatologist and head of the Department of Dermatology and Allergology at the University Hospital of Ulm has spent a long time investigating skin ageing. Her specific focus on skin has not however restricted her understanding of ageing to barely deterministic or mechanistic details. Quite the opposite is true.

Article - 19/11/2009

Iwona Adamska helps plants exposed to light stress

Light is a vital element for plants. They require light to carry out photosynthesis and to produce their body substance from inorganic substances such as water and carbon dioxide. On the other hand plants can also suffer from too much light. Plants have developed a number of protective mechanisms to survive light stress situations. The biologist Prof. Iwona Adamska from the University of Constance is looking closely into these protective…

“In order to fully understand an organism, it is necessary to consider it as a whole,” said Dr. Uwe Schulte, biochemist and CEO of Logopharm GmbH in Freiburg. A growing number of scientists hold the same view, and there is a growing inclination to research the big picture. This is reflected in the continuously increasing number of projects looking into systems biology research.

Article - 01/02/2018

Combined test systems to advance the development of drugs for treating Alzheimer’s

Which substances are suitable for treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's? Due to complex biochemical relationships, testing suitable drug candidates is difficult, especially in the early drug development phase. Many predictive test systems only cover individual aspects. A team from Baden-Württemberg and France is now combining different models to develop a new approach.

Article - 25/01/2010

Intelligent use of suitable biomarkers

How quickly does a pharmaceutical substance exert its effect? What mechanisms does it use to exert its effect on people and how long does it remain active? In a team headed by Prof. Dr. Martin Elmlinger Nycomed GmbH has developed an efficient biomarker discovery concept specially adapted to the companys requirements and designed to clarify such questions. The concept is specifically geared to the phases and requirements of the companys projects.…

Prof. Dr. Harald Krug a toxicologist who runs the Materials-Biology Interaction division at Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research in St. Gallen Switzerland and his team are investigating the interactions of synthetic materials with biological systems. The team of 25 researchers is focusing in particular on the effect of particles and nanomaterials such as CNT on human and animal cells. The division has been an…