Healthcare industry

Dossier - 18/04/2016

Epigenetics – heritable traits without changing the DNA sequence

Epigenetics, i.e. the inheritance of traits that does not involve a change in the DNA sequence, was once a controversial subject that has since become a central focus of biological research. Epigenetic inheritance is now studied by numerous national and international research programmes. Many cellular regulatory and differentiation processes are controlled by epigenetic mechanisms that take place on different levels, including the DNA, histone,…

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.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has granted the Medical Hospital in Freiburg and the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg funding for a proposal applying to become one of the DFG’s 18 priority programmes in 2009.

Article - 11/10/2010

Cow sheds and asthma genetics

Many genes are known to play a role in the development of the chronic lung disease bronchial asthma. Dr. Andrea Heinzmanns team at the University Medical Centre Freiburg has investigated some of these genes and is also interested in epigenetic factors. It is known that asthma is not only caused by genetic factors but can also be triggered by mechanisms that affect the genes without changing the genetic code.

Cellzome announced today that it has achieved the second milestone in its epigenetics alliance with GlaxoSmithKline. The milestone triggers a payment of an undisclosed amount from GSK and follows only two months after the first milestone was achieved.

Article - 15/12/2014

Heart muscle cell 1.0 and 2.0 – two epigenetic programmes in one cell

All the cells in an organism have to adapt to changing requirements as they develop and grow - including muscle cells in the heart. Crucial to this process are the cells’ growth in size and epigenetic factors that play a role in modulating the expression of various genes. The role of epigenetics in cancer development has been the focus of research for quite some time. The question is, what role do epigenetic factors play in the development of the…

Article - 11/12/2017

KDM4 – an efficient target for the therapy of triple-negative breast cancer

While breast cancer survival has clearly improved in recent years, women with triple-negative breast cancer have benefitted very little from progress in cancer medicine. Targeted therapies aimed at inhibiting epigenetic regulators might offer a potential new option for the treatment of breast cancer. Prof. Dr. Roland Schüle and Dr. Jochen Maurer have discovered an epigenetic enzyme called KDM4 and come up with a new cell model that significantly…

Article - 21/05/2012

Interactions between the genome and the environment

Parental neglect appears to lead to epigenetic changes in children, which result in behavioural problems in later years. This is one issue amongst the many that were addressed at the colloquium “Gene und Umwelt – Wie wir werden, was wir sind” (Genes and the environment – how we become what we are) recently organized by the Daimler and Benz Foundation in Berlin.

Press release - 26/01/2011

‘Complexes Matter’ in How Epigenetic Inhibitors Interact with Their Drug Targets

Cellzome Scientists Publish First Chemoproteomic Characterization of HDAC Inhibitors in Nature Biotechnology. Results of the first ever chemoproteomic study of inhibition of HDAC Histone Deacetylase complexes opens up the potential for a new way of studying potency and selectivity for inhibitors of epigenetic drug targets such as HDACs.

Article - 16/01/2012

Manfred Jung: drug discovery and the epigenetic code

Prof. Dr. Manfred Jungs team at the University of Freiburg are chemical epigeneticists whose research involves the development of methods that enable them to identify and optimise new therapeutic drugs which are able to alter the epigenetic code of cancer and other cell types. The team use a perfidious worm for their research.

Article - 25/03/2013

Epigenetics for personalised cancer care for women

Every year in the EU, 45,300 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 330,000 with breast cancer. Ovarian cancer has a mortality rate of around 64% and breast cancer around 27%*. The EU-funded research project EpiFemCare aims at improving cancer detection and subsequent patient care. The research project aims to develop blood tests based on epigenetic DNA modifications, i.e. the methylation of the base cytosine, for the identification of…

The latest articles, press releases and dossiers on diagnostics in Baden-Württemberg

Press release - 07/08/2009

Silenced genes as a warning sign of blood cancer

Important growth inhibitors are often switched off in the genetic material of cancer cells by specific chemical DNA modifications. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), in collaboration with colleagues from Ohio State University in the United States, have investigated how this happens. They discovered, in mice, that cancer-typical DNA methylation occurs long before the first symptoms of…

The latest articles, press releases and dossiers on basic research in Baden-Württemberg

Histone acetyltransferases HATs and their antagonists the histone deacetylases are important enzymes in epigenetic gene regulation. Scientists discovered new HAT inhibitors that are now being investigated for their potential as anti-cancer drugs.

Article - 30/06/2014

Targeting epigenetic DNA modifications for the diagnosis of cancer

Epigenetic DNA modifications have been shown to play a role in carcinogenesis and are therefore a promising target for the early detection of cancer. Dr. Daniel Summerer and his research group at the University of Konstanz have developed a method that enables the direct and site-specific identification of epigenetic changes. The method represents a new approach in the field of epigenetic analysis as well as a major step towards simpler cancer…

Article - 28/03/2018

New method for analysing epigenetic modifications - in the service of medical progress

It is not just genetic factors that influence developmental processes and diseases; it is becoming increasingly evident that epigenetic changes play a major role too. Thanks to a new method developed at the University of Stuttgart, epigenetic processes can now be investigated in living cells.

Article - 26/01/2015

A biomarker as indicator for the likelihood of developing aggressive prostate cancer

Overexpression of the protein BAZ2A, which leads to alterations in epigenetic patterns, increases the malignant properties of tumour cells, including their mobility and their ability to form metastases. The findings of a team of researchers from Heidelberg, Zurich and Hamburg may have led to the discovery of an urgently needed prognostic biomarker that would make it possible to differentiate aggressive prostate cancer from the less malignant…

Press release - 21/10/2010

How Genes Are Selectively Silenced

Cells have to use their resources economically. Therefore they read only those genes which are needed at a given moment while the others are chemically labeled and thus selectively turned off. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum DKFZ have now been the first to discover how these labels are placed at exactly the right spot in the genetic material.

Three researchers at the MPI for Immunobiology and Epigenetics receive millions in funding from the European Research Council. Dominic Grün, Nicola Iovino and Ritwick Sawarkar from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg will each be awareded one of the prestigious Consolidator Grants of the European Research Council. This means that 6 million euros in funding will go to fundamental research in Freiburg over the next…

Press release - 21/09/2011

Epigenetic changes don’t last

First comprehensive inventory of epigenetic changes over several generations shows that these often do not last and therefore probably have limited effects on long-term evolution. The team around Detlef Weigel, director of the Department for Molecular Biology, focused on one of the most important epigenetic marks, methylation of DNA.

Article - 17/12/2015

Inhibition of bromodomain affects stem cell differentiation

DNA methylation and histone modification are epigenetic mechanisms that affect gene transcription. Moreover, protein complexes can regulate gene expression by modifying chromatin structure and function. Dr. Thomas Günther and his team from the Center for Clinical Research at the Freiburg University Medical Center are studying the effect of the inhibitor PFI-3 on the BAF complex. This protein complex modifies chromatin structure and controls the…

Article - 13/05/2013

Cardiomyopathies and epigenetic inheritance

Epigenetic mechanisms, along with gene mutations, have been shown to play important roles in the development of heart diseases. Researchers from Heidelberg have discovered that the methylation of two specific genes has an impact on the development of dilated cardiomyopathy. These epigenetic modifications have the potential to be used as molecular markers and improve the diagnosis and therapy of these particular heart diseases.

Press release - 11/03/2010

Cellzome Announces Second Alliance with GlaxoSmithKline

Cellzome today announced that it has formed a second strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This new collaboration gives GSK exclusive access to Cellzome’s proprietary Episphere™ technology in the emerging field of epigenetics as applied to immunoinflammatory disease. Epigenetic mechanisms play a key role in controlling immune cell differentiation and inflammatory gene expression during an excessive inflammatory response.

Article - 17/02/2009

Genes and epigenetic mechanisms

The different cell types in a multicellular organism contain the same genome but differ from each other dramatically in both function and structure nerve cells kidney cells etc.. The differentiation of the cells is linked to the identity of their precursors. This then raises the question If the cells destiny is not encoded in the DNA how do they know what to become? The new director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg…