Healthcare industry

Proposals have to be submitted by 1 December 2008.

The first Web log was initiated in 1991. Since then an ever increasing number of scientists have been using these Internet diaries to communicate knowledge report about science comment on it and classify it. Web logs are an enrichment for science communication.

About a year ago Prof. Dr. Martin Schwemmle and his team at the University Hospital of Freiburg discovered a new starting point in the fight against the H5N1-virus. In the meantime the scientists are working together with the company Pike Pharma to develop a compound.

Claus Schwechheimer at the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Tübingen has succeeded in identifying a protein function in plants which if it is understood might lead to important progress in human cancer research.

Cancer cells are dangerous foodies. They metabolise far greater amounts of sugar than healthy cells. Nuclear medicine experts make use of cancer cells craving for sugar since the advent of modern positron emission tomography PET. This has led to an improvement in the quality of cancer treatment.

Researchers in Ulm are hoping to find new ways to destroy bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma cells through radiation. The German Jos Carreras Leukaemia Foundation is funding the research with a total of about 300000 euros over three years.

Mobile DNA elements are able to change their position in the genome and mobilise entire gene groups as well as switch genes on and off. Professor Bodo Rak and his team at the University of Freiburg are investigating the effect of mobile DNA fragments on the evolution of E. coli bacteria.

Karlsruhe based quantiom bioinformatics has developed a software tool that enables the comparative analysis of chromosomes and that enables statements to be made on the correlation of genomic alterations and disease development.

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.

Press release - 19/05/2008

Viruses caught red-handed

Prof. Thilo Stehle biochemist at the University of Tübingen wants to capture and accurately study the moment at which a virus binds to a cell. He is hoping that further insights into this process might some time enable the development of drugs.

During the second Conference on Systems Biology of Mammalian Cells SBMC the MTZ-Award for medically-oriented Systems Biology will for the first time be presented. The prize sum of 5000 Euro can be divided and will be granted to the three best dissertations.

Organisers and more than 300 participants were very enthusiastic about the European BioFine life sciences congress recently held in Freiburg. Four different life sciences conferences were organised . Freiburg will also host BioFine 2009.

The GABI-PRECISE consortium which originates from the Genome Analysis of the Plant Biological System GABI initiative has announced a cooperative project on the introduction of gene targeting in barley.

GATC Biotech announced that it has added to its facilities with a wholly owned subsidiary in Stockholm Sweden building on the Companys existing presence in Europe with offices in Germany France and England.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer or reprogramming of somatic cells into a near embryonic state - it is now expected that stem cell experts rate their findings in the field of stem cell research. What can be called a breakthrough? What is the scientific value?

Article - 24/03/2008

Successful cooperation between science and industry

At the recent Science meets Business Day four tandem teams of the German BioValley Platform presented their projects. These will be introduced in two articles. The first article focuses on natural substances with a pharmaceutical potential.

The biotechnology sector is growing and new companies have excellent opportunities to establish themselves on the market. Dr. Michael Steinwand explains what companies have to beware.

Nils Johnssons work focuses on communication research involving living objects. The 48-year-old biochemist is investigating how proteins manage the complicated process of cytokinesis the division of the cell plasma. Thanks to a specific method Johnsson is able to detect when proteins are interacting with each other.

The leaders of the two countries research policy groups met in the French capital to discuss strategies on how to cope with challenges that are faced by both countries in the field of research. Several Agreements signed at the end of the Forum are the basis of strategic partnerships.

The history of Bt-maize is a strange mix of opportunities risks scientific contradictions market authorisations and recalls. It is also an excellent example of why the public scepticism towards genetically modified organisms GMO is growing.

Dr. Gilbert Gorr has been fascinated by the moss Physcomitrella patens for many years in fact it occupies a great deal of his waking moments. The enthusiasm with which the CSO of greenovation Biotech GmbH talks about the key object of his work is both intoxicating and contagious. The latest discovery The moss produces a therapeutic antibody that is far more effective than its predecessors created in animal cell cultures.

Article - 20/02/2008

Threadworms throughout time

Threadworms are versatile research objects and are excellent models for investigating fundamental evolutionary principles. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology use the Caenorhabditis and Pristionchus threadworm genera to study the molecular mechanisms of biodiversity.

Although the biomolecule DNS has provided many explanations and hopeful projections opinions are divided over the question of DNA being the carrier of genetic information. There is a huge need for clarification. Biologists clinicians psychologists lawyers and bioethicists discussed in Tübingen.

In 1998 James Thomson was the first to generate stem cells from human embryos. BIOPRO will present the new methods in the field of embryonic stem cell research. Stem cell experts regeneration biologists medics and ethicists will explain whether they think that the new methods are useful or not.

Dossier - 01/02/2008

Glycobiotechnology - sugar research is picking up speed

Alongside DNA and proteins sugar structures play an important role in cellular transport and communication processes. They are also part of the molecular control and regulation machinery making them of particular interest to biotechnologists. The pharmaceutical industry as well as the food sector and material sciences have realised the potential of sugar structures.