Healthcare industry

Article - 23/08/2010

Antibiotics for the prevention of malaria

Researchers from Heidelberg and Berlin have shown that if malaria-infected mice are administered an antibiotic, no parasites appear in the blood and the mice are protected from this life-threatening disease. The scientists believe that antibiotics also have the potential to strengthen the human immune system as well as making it possible to provide a natural needle-free vaccination against malaria.

Press release - 05/07/2010

A worm bites off enough to chew

Max Planck researchers have uncovered an ingenious evolutionary trick: a signalling chain is allocated several functions, enabling optimal adaptation to environmental conditions

Press release - 20/06/2010

Evolution much faster than previously assumed

It has taken lake cichlids in Nicaragua just 100 generations and the same number of years to evolve an entirely new physical feature very fat lips perched on a narrow pointy head. These evolutionary processes observed by Professor Dr. Axel Meyer from the University of Constance are a lot faster than they were previously believed to be. Evolutionary change can happen within a few decades.

Article - 05/05/2010

The Hydra genome

The genome of the freshwater cnidarian Hydra, a model organism used in evo-devo research, was recently deciphered by an international group of researchers including Prof. Thomas Holstein’s group from the University of Heidelberg. The sequencing of the Hydra genome sheds light on the early evolutionary lines and the development of the complexity of multicellular animals.

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 - 22/02/2010

Immune system discovers mould fungi through surface structures

Mould fungus spores which are found in air aerosols are constantly being taken up in the air we inhale. As a rule this poses no danger to healthy people. However depending on the quantity of spores inhaled and the duration of exposure mould fungi could possibly lead or contribute to lung diseases and allergies. Dr. Mardas Daneshian and his team at the University of Constance are focusing on the immunostimulatory capacity of fungal spores. The…

Press release - 04/02/2010

MicroRNA: a glimpse into the past

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL in Heidelberg Germany have discovered that microRNAs are found in the exact same tissues in animals as diverse as sea anemones worms and humans hinting at an early origin of these tissues in animal evolution.

Press release - 14/01/2010

Evolution caught in the act

Mutations are the raw material of evolution. Charles Darwin already recognized that evolution depends on heritable differences between individuals: those who are better adapted to the environment have better chances to pass on their genes to the next generation. A species can only evolve if the genome changes through new mutations, with the best new variants surviving the sieve of selection. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for…

Article - 05/01/2010

Biocatalysis – a perfect mission for Bernhard Hauer

Even though human beings are great inventors, nature itself frequently comes up with the best solutions. One good example is enzymes: in contrast to the processes used in the technical-chemical production of basic industrial substances, enzymatic biocatalysis saves energy, raw materials and reduces side and waste products. Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hauer, the new director of the Institute of Technical Biochemistry (ITB) at the University of Stuttgart is…

Press release - 23/12/2009

The spread of HIV: optimal adaptation to the human host

A new study led by the virologist and Leibniz Award winner Frank Kirchhoff from Ulm might be about to provide an explanation as to why only one of several independent transmissions of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) from chimpanzees to humans led to the global AIDS pandemic. The researchers now hope that these new findings will contribute to the search for new strategies to prevent the further spread of AIDS viruses.

Article - 21/12/2009

A slightly different worm – Platynereis dumerilii

The tiny marine ragworm Platynereis dumerilii was first used as a laboratory organism in order to investigate the dependence of its reproduction cycle on the phases of the moon. Recent work carried out by Detlev Arendt at the EMBL in Heidelberg and other researchers is transforming the worm into an evo-devo research model, in particular with regard to the development of its eyes and central nervous system.

Press release - 11/11/2009

Hematopoietic stem cell treatment with a new gene therapy vector: A first success treating a brain disease

Two children with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a fatal brain disease, have been successfully treated with a new gene therapy vector. Two years after treatment, the disease evolution has been stopped, and no adverse effect of the gene therapy has been observed so far. The results of this clinical trial conducted by Drs Nathalie Cartier and Patrick Aubourg (Inserm, France) in collaboration with European partners have just been published in Science…

Article - 22/10/2009

On the track of fascinating diatoms

Diatoms make a considerable contribution to the production of oxygen and biomass in the worlds oceans and aquatic ecosystems. However up until now little is known about the molecular biology and chemistry of these eukaryotic algae. Prof. Peter Kroth and his team at the University of Constance are hoping to shed more light on these algae. The team has recently been involved in the deciphering of the Phaeodactylum tricornutum genome research that…

The second Science to Market Conference took place in Hannover, Germany, on October 6 – 7, 2009. The aim of the conference was the promotion of cooperation between academia and industry in the area of pharmaceutical biotechnology.

Press release - 13/08/2009

Molecular mechanisms of embryonic development and cell differentiation

An interdisciplinary group of researchers from Heidelberg and Karlsruhe is dealing with special proteins involved in important processes in early embryogenesis and cell differentiation in humans and animals. The consortium focuses on the topic: “Mechanisms, functions and evolution of Wnt signalling pathways” and brings together eight teams of researchers from the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg University Hospital, the German Cancer Research…

Scientists of the University of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Centre have clarified the functional principles of an important receptor for bacterial infections: immune cells recognise bacterial and viral pathogens with a receptor known as toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), which mediates biochemical reaction chains in order to fend off intruders. This discovery made by the Heidelberg researchers paves the way to develop new anti-infective…

Chronic inflammatory lung diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema are a major global health problem, and the fourth leading cause of death and disability in developed countries, with smoking accounting for 90% of the risk for developing them. Work by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU) with the University of Heidelberg, Germany, has shed new light on the…

Press release - 03/07/2009

Green Stem Cells in a Moss

Although every cell of a living organism contains essentially the same genes, most animals and plants are composed of a huge variety of different cell types with special functions: Humans can’t think with their skin, and roses can’t flower with their roots. An Israeli-German Research Consortium has discovered what makes the difference in a moss.

Article - 10/06/2009

Dirk Linke - a vaccine is ready - just in case

There is a well-known saying: travel broadens the mind. This is not the only consequence of travel – the biochemist Dr. Dirk Linke from Tübingen travelled to India on holiday and brought back an idea for a new scientific project. Since his return, his idea, the possibility of developing a vaccine with a wide-ranging effect against some of the most frequent diarrhoea pathogens, has even generated financial backing from prominent supporters.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen Germany determined the structure of a protein L1ORF1p which is encoded by a parasitic genetic element and which is responsible for its mobility.

Press release - 04/12/2008

Leibniz Awards for two Ulm University professors

Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchhoff Institute of Virology and Prof. Dr. Karl Lenhard Rudolph Institute of Molecular Medicine from the University of Ulm have received two of the German Research Foundations eleven Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme awards.

Article - 29/11/2008

The worm in humans

Caenorhabditis elegans has a lifespan of 20 days. The worm is as small as a comma and consists of only 959 cells. Caenorhabditis elegans is very different from Homo sapiens who might at least in Germany live for as long as 79 years or more. Nevertheless the tiny worm is the most important model organism for researchers into ageing who use it to study the development of age-related diseases and the ageing process itself.

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.

It runs and runs and is extremely successful The SFB 592 established in 2001 and entitled Signalling mechanisms in embryogenesis and organogenesis investigates the biological functions of different signalling pathways. Since its foundation the scientists of the SFB have published many excellent papers in highly renowned journals. Their work has been of such a high standard that the German Research Foundation DFG has decided to fund the…

There are only a few signalling pathways that have been as well conserved during evolution as the Notch signalling pathway. This is due to the pathways unique biological function. Notch enables two identical cells to develop into completely different tissues. Anette Preiß professor at the University of Hohenheim has been working on the function of the Notch signalling pathway for almost 20 years.