Healthcare industry

Effective drugs against viral diseases like COVID-19 are urgently needed now and in the future. The emergence of viral mutants and yet unknown viruses could push vaccines to their limits. The DZIF scientist and bioinformatician Andreas Dräger from the University of Tübingen is working on a computer-based method that can help to accelerate the time-consuming identification and development of antiviral agents. Using a novel analysis technique that…

Development of anti-tumour agents - 20/03/2023

Targeting the protective shield of cancers

Cancer cells have different mechanisms to help them escape destruction by the immune system. Solid tumours, for example, are often surrounded by a protective layer of lactate, which has a strong immunosuppressive effect. WMT AG from Heidelberg is developing small drug molecules that reduce lactate production and thus make cancer cells vulnerable to immune system attacks.

Expert interview - 08/03/2023

How do new active substances from university research reach patients?

Access to capital remains one of the biggest challenges in the life sciences sector. Over the last two years, the Baden-Württemberg Center for Academic Drug Discovery (BWCAD2) has successfully implemented a model of cooperation between academic drug research and industry for the development and validation of therapeutic concepts. Dr. Barbara Jonischkeit spoke with the initiator and leading figure behind the BWCAD2 project, Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer

The hospital pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa requires the sugar-binding proteins LecA and LecB to form biofilms as well as to attach to and penetrate host cells. These so-called lectins are therefore suitable targets for active substances to combat Pseudomonas infections. Researchers from Saarbrücken and Freiburg have now produced potent inhibitors for LecA and LecB that are more stable and soluble than previous drug candidates.

ValidaTe enables characterization of efficacy and safety of T-cell drug candidates in days rather than months. The breakthrough speed and unprecedented density of data processed can give partner companies a competitive advantage. New high-throughput microarray technology for label-free characterization of drug candidate interactions can significantly accelerate development in immune-oncology.

Drugs consist of molecules developed in the drug laboratory that bind to their target, usually a protein, and thus exert their effect. The actual duration of binding of a drug molecule to its target protein varies depending on the drug. The lifetime of the drug-target complex can play a critical role in the efficacy of a drug, as a long residence time at the target can be crucial for the drug's action in some cases.

New drugs are intended to help stop viral zoonoses – infections that jump from animals to humans. To study suitable inhibitors, Prof. Dr Christian Klein from the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology (IPMB) of Heidelberg University is receiving funding in the amount of 450,000 euros from the Volkswagen Foundation.

Vaccine development - 25/05/2021

Vaccines – a beacon of hope in the fight against pandemics

Having long been considered less lucrative for the big pharmaceutical companies, vaccine development is taking off in an unforeseen way in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial support is flooding in and all kinds of vaccine development strategies are being deployed. Among the winners in the competition for effective coronavirus vaccines are vaccines based on RNA technology. The development of much-needed vaccines against many other…

Evotec SE announced today the launch of beLAB2122 in the Rhine- Main-Neckar region to efficiently advance first-in-class therapeutic concepts into investable drug discovery projects. Mediated and supported by BioRN, Evotec’s newest BRIDGE brings together the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (“EMBL”), the German Cancer Research Center (“DKFZ”), the Goethe University Frankfurt, Heidelberg University and the University of Tübingen.

Quantum Technology Ulm - 08/04/2021

Diamonds for life sciences innovations

The world's first commercial quantum computer,’IBM Q System One’, is now in operation in Ehningen near Stuttgart. This is a major leap forward in quantum technology in Germany. It marks the point at which conventional computers reach their limits. The University of Ulm is involved in three of six collaborative projects being funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing Construction.

Microfluidics in medical technology - 24/03/2021

Ultra-compact: valves with shape memory actuators

Karlsruhe-based company memetis shows that this is possible. Intelligent components for controlling fluids open up huge potential in the medical technology and biotechnology sectors - from vaccine development and cell line analysis to drug research and point-of-care solutions.

SICOS BW GmbH - 18/06/2020

High-performance computing and data analytics to combat coronavirus

In an epidemic, data exchange and the use of innovative technologies are essential to be able to act effectively and quickly against the infection. High-performance computers and data analytics make a valuable contribution to this. SICOS BW is a promising solution centre that bridges the gap from numerical simulation, big data and AI to companies in the medical technology sector.

Vaccine development - 02/06/2020

CureVac as a pioneer of mRNA technology – what is behind the novel COVID-19 vaccine?

All eyes are on vaccines against the coronavirus. The Tübingen-based company CureVac is doing pioneering work in this field, and intends to initiate clinical testing of its lead vaccine candidate in June. At the same time, Curevac is manufacturing the material for this vaccine candidate. But that’s not all: the novel mRNA technology also has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of cancer and metabolic diseases. What makes the method so…

Trenzyme GmbH - 20/05/2020

The SARS-CoV spike protein and its receptor

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses a spike protein to bind to the ACE2 receptor on the cell surfaces of lung tissue. Additional cofactors are needed to allow the virus genome to penetrate human cells and multiply. Knowing these relationships can help understand the course of the infection and develop counterstrategies. To this end, the Constance-based company Trenzyme has produced a recombinant spike protein to support coronavirus research.

CureVac AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on optimized mRNA, today announced positive pre-clinical results at a low dose for its lead vaccine candidate against the novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Novel coronavirus outbreak - a status report on recent developments - 04/03/2020

Waiting for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine

Researchers around the world are working frantically on the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus. A project by the Tübingen-based biotechnology company CureVac, funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), uses the company’s technology platform for mRNA-based vaccines to accelerate vaccine development, thus contributing to the future prevention of the disease.

Article - 28/03/2019

Supporting the human use of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is no longer a vision of the future, but is already in our midst: whether it is parking aids or search engines, we use the technology quite naturally in many areas of daily life. It promises new, unlimited opportunities, but also poses risks. Experts from the Integrata Foundation in Tübingen work on ethical issues and the human use of IT for improving the life of as many people as possible.

Affimed will receive $96 million upfront and committed funding and is eligible for up to an additional $5.0 billion including milestone payments, and royalties on sales.

Article - 21/02/2018

HepaRegeniX – a start-up is taking it up a step!

HepaRegeniX, a biotech company founded in 2016, specialises in developing drugs that restore the regenerative capacity of diseased livers. The three founders of the biotech start-up, Prof. Dr. Lars Zender, Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer and Dr. Wolfgang Albrecht, anticipate starting clinical testing of the first drug candidate in 2019.

Article - 14/02/2018

Animal-free diabetes research with the pancreas chip

Quite a number of promising drug candidates for the treatment of diabetes are currently in the pharmaceutical pipeline, including innovative drugs that can stimulate the regeneration of insulin-producing pancreatic cells. However, they will have to be safety tested in animals. Scientists from Ulm University Hospital have now begun to develop a pancreatic chip from stem cells.

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 - 07/12/2017

GoSilico: a formula for the industrial purification of biomolecules

“Stop experimenting – GoSilico” is the motto of a young start-up company from Karlsruhe. The founding team of GoSilico GmbH is causing a furore with a simulation software that would make many laboratory experiments obsolete. The chromatographic separation of biomolecules from organisms, samples and cell cultures can be reliably simulated after just a few starter experiments. This saves time, work, material and costs in pharmaceutical development.

Company profile - 04/09/2017

Mireca: a new drug for stopping the progression of eye diseases

A team of researchers from several EU countries has developed a new drug that stops the progression of hereditary retinal diseases. The project partners founded a company called Mireca Medicines GmbH in the city of Tübingen to bring the drug to market.

Article - 24/05/2017

Ralf Reski: from moss to humans

Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski conducts basic research at the University of Freiburg. But this is not all the well-known plant biotechnologist does. He also wants his ideas to become concrete products. This is why he established Greenovation Biotech GmbH, a company which produces novel drugs in mosses. The company’s first moss-produced drug candidate – Moss-aGal – a recombinant form of human α-galactosidase, is now being tested in a phase I clinical trial.…

Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG (Phenex) today announced that the company has received a 100 M USD milestone payment from Gilead Sciences, Inc. of Foster City, CA, U.S.A., for its program with GS-9674 targeting nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

HepaRegeniX GmbH, a new Biotech company developing innovative treatments for liver diseases, announced today the completion of a €9 million Series A financing. The round was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund GmbH (BIVF) and Novo Seeds, and complemented by the High-Tech Gruenderfonds and coparion.

Article - 21/12/2016

For all types of tests: Signatope’s biomarker assays

Signatope is a new biotech company that has been offering innovative biomarker assays for application in drug discovery since August 2016. The company’s assays can be used in all phases of drug development to detect potential adverse drug effects on the kidneys, liver and other organs in any species whatsoever using minute amounts of sample.

Acousia Therapeutics GmbH announced today the closing of a new investment round of EUR 2.5 million to finance research programs directed at the development of small molecules to treat sensorineural hearing loss and protecting sensory hair cells of the inner ear to prevent hearing loss in at-risk patients.

Expert interview - 14/11/2016

Fighting diseases with plant-derived active compounds

Herbal medicines have a long tradition in Germany. In an interview with Dr. Ariane Pott from BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Professor Dr. Michael Wink, Director of the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg, highlighted that plants produce compounds that are effective against microorganisms and that can also be put to good use in the treatment of human diseases.

Article - 04/07/2016

Epigenetic modifications for the treatment of oesophageal cancer

Oesophageal cancer is a rare but highly aggressive type of cancer with a rather poor prognosis. Dr. Theresa Ahrens, a researcher in a group led by Prof. Dr. Silke Laßmann and Prof. Dr. Martin Werner at the Institute of Clinical Pathology at the Freiburg University Medical Centre, has tested a variety of epigenetic drugs that can interfere with the development of oesophageal cancer.

Article - 17/05/2016

Innovative biochip for discovering drugs for treating neuronal conditions

Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and epilepsy are three prominent examples of neuronal conditions (disorders affecting the nerve cells) for which drugs for treatment are intensively sought. Paolo Cesare from the NMI in Reutlingen has developed an innovative 3D system for testing drugs that does not require animal testing. In 2015, the MEAFLUIT system was awarded first prize in BioRegio STERN Management GmbH's Science2Start idea competition.

Article - 25/04/2016

Pancreatic cancer and its resistance to therapy

Pancreatic tumours are among the cancers with the worst prognosis. In many cases they are resistant to treatment. Prof. Dr. Andreas Trumpp and his colleagues from the DKFZ and the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine HI-STEM have discovered that the reason why some pancreatic tumours are so resistant to treatment is down to larger quantities of the enzyme CYP3A5 in subtypes of pancreatic cancer. Molecular…

Article - 08/02/2016

MalVa GmbH – a protein cocktail that could potentially produce a high protection malaria vaccine

MalVa GmbH was founded as a spin-off company of Heidelberg University Hospital around five years ago and its aim is to develop an effective and safe inactivated vaccine against malaria. MalVa GmbH’s innovative strategy to combat this infectious disease involves a cocktail of several parasite antigens.

Article - 28/01/2016

Crowdsourcing initiative to tackle Alzheimer’s

The BioMed X Innovation Center and the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG have used crowdsourcing to set up a team of scientists from renowned international institutions to investigate new options for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The team are looking for targets in the metabolism of tau proteins and its pathological modifications that can be used to develop drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG (Phenex) today announced the achievement of a milestone in the collaboration with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen), which triggers a 6 M US$ payment by Janssen. In late 2012, Phenex and Janssen entered into a research collaboration on RORgt with a view to develop new therapeutic approaches for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Article - 26/11/2015

Chrystelle Mavoungou: how students get to the heart of the drug discovery process

Chrystelle Mavoungou is a chemist who teaches regulatory affairs and quality in pharmaceutical production at the Biberach University of Applied Sciences’ Faculty of Biotechnology. While the public might consider these issues difficult to deal with, students and early career pharmaceutical biotechnologists quickly learn that issues like these take them right to the heart of the drug discovery process.

Article - 16/03/2015

Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt - searching for novel antibiotics in bacteria

Microbial metabolic products can be used in the fight against dangerous pathogens such as multidrug-resistant bacteria. Since summer 2014, microbiologist Prof. Dr. Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt has been investigating the mechanisms of action of bacterial substances at the University of Tübingen with the aim of paving the way for new antibiotics. Interesting candidates have already been identified.

Press release - 09/03/2015

Gilead Sciences aquires FXR-program of Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Foster City, CA, U.S.A.) and Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG (Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg, Germany), a privately-held biotechnology company, announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which Gilead will acquire Phenex’s Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) program comprising small molecule FXR agonists for the treatment of liver diseases including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Article - 10/06/2014

Ribosome assembly as target for innovative antibiotics

Although bacterial ribosomes are a popular target of common antibiotics, there are no drugs that specifically target ribosome assembly. To date, there is simply no screening method that would be suitable for assaying inhibitors of ribosomal subunit assembly. Prof. Dr. Elke Deuerling and Dr. Rainer Nikolay from the University of Konstanz have now achieved a breakthrough. They have developed a method that enables the high-throughput identification…

Article - 26/05/2014

With printable biotech through the entire sequence space

A peephole is not enough for Frank Rosenau. He wants to see everything. The insatiable scientist is a biotechnologist at Ulm University and his aim is to exploit everything the emerging field of printable biotechnology can offer to miniaturization in pharmaceutical research. Working with chemists, physicists and medical doctors, Rosenau focuses on the cell-free production of all theoretically possible peptides in the human body.

Article - 26/05/2014

HDC – state-of-the-art drug research at a location with a long-standing tradition

Hit Discovery Constance GmbH (HDC) searches for new drug candidates on behalf of academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry. Established in early 2014 on the Konstanz Campus (former Takeda/Nycomed/Altana research site), the joint venture organization offers high-throughput screening and compound management and storage services to support the transfer of academic research into the development of new medicines. With its high-throughput…

Article - 31/03/2014

The growing significance of peptide therapeutics

The therapeutic use of peptides lags behind that of proteins. And there are good reasons for this. However, it seems that this is beginning to change and that peptide therapeutics are growing in significance. As a matter of fact, peptides have become rather popular candidates for drugs.

Article - 10/03/2014

From structure to mechanism

Life would be impossible without the broad range of enzymes that enable the flow of cellular metabolites in plant, animal and microbial organisms. Enzymes are biocatalysts that control and facilitate difficult chemical reactions associated with inheritance, breathing and digestion as well as the synthesis of natural products. Enzymes like chorismatase have long been attractive drug discovery targets. Junior professor Dr. Jennifer Andexer from the…

Article - 10/02/2014

HOT Screen GmbH - models for studying diseases

HOT Screen GmbH from Reutlingen Germany develops human organotypical HOT cell culture models related to the human immune system for the assessment of drug activity profiles and the selection of suitable drug candidates. The sophisticated models are made with differentiated cells and can be adapted to a broad range of different diseases - including rheumatoid arthritis osteoarthritis Crohns disease neurodermatitis COPD asthma and many others.

Press release - 15/01/2014

Hit Discovery Constance GmbH: a new hub for HTS and compound management

Hit Discovery Constance GmbH (“HDC”), a new joint venture organisation between Lead Discovery Center (Dortmund/Germany), Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3, KULeuven, Leuven/Belgium) and Axxam (Milan/Italy) has started its operation. The new company is based in Constance (Germany) and will make use of the already established equipment and know-how of the former Takeda/Nycomed/Altana screening and compound management facilities at the site.

Article - 28/10/2013

Peptides as drugs – researchers from Ulm hope to unearth the treasures of the human body

The human body harbours unsuspected resources. It also produces customised drugs such as peptides. Although this sounds like a far too bold hypothesis, it is not. Researchers from Ulm consider the approach so promising that they have now established the Ulm Centre for Peptide Pharmaceuticals (UPEP).

Article - 09/09/2013

The Heinrich-Lanz Centre for Personalised Medicine in Mannheim

A Centre for Translational Research and Personalised Medicine is currently emerging at the Faculty of Medicine in Mannheim, University of Heidelberg. The new centre is expected to boost the development of new therapies in cooperation with partners from Germany and abroad. The centre also works closely with the “French-German Advanced Translational Drug Discovery Center”, a unique, large-scale, cross-border research cooperation between French and…

Dossier - 01/07/2013

Electrophysiology – from cardiac pacemakers to drug discovery

Electrochemical reactions are involved in many processes in the human organism. Electrophysiology is the study of the central processes of electrical and chemical interaction and communication between neurons and muscle cells, including the transmission and processing of signals in the nerves and the subsequent contraction of the muscles. For example, electrophysiology studies examine the rhythm which which our heart pumps blood through the…

Dossier - 25/03/2013

Biotechnology goes automated

Processes that previously required pipetting analysis and production to be carried out manually are increasingly now controlled by automated systems. However this has not necessarily involved a complete reinvention of the wheel instead automation systems used in the plant construction and mechanical engineering sectors are being adapted and optimised for application in the life sciences.

Article - 17/09/2012

Thomas Paulöhrl: spatially and temporally controlled light-induced reactions

Thomas Paulöhrl, polymer chemist from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), was awarded the 2012 Lanxess Talent Award for his achievements in further developing light-induced click strategies that can now be used for generating various surface structures and three-dimensional frameworks. His Ph.D. thesis not only provides the basis for new ways to efficiently modify material, it also opens up new research opportunities in medical drug…