Healthcare industry

Anyone attempting to assess the importance of pharmacogenetics for drug safety will inevitably end up considering the ambiguous responses of Radio Eriwan. It is true that genetic tests are theoretically able to predict whether an inactive enzyme affects the metabolism of a drug and whether it is necessary to apply a different drug dose. But how can this knowledge be applied in everyday clinical settings when patients with this inactive enzyme are…

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 - 15/03/2010

Cornelia Ulrich: Cancer prevention through food and sports

The appointment of Cornelia Ulrich as professor and head of the Departments of Preventive Oncology at the National Centre for Tumour Diseases and the German Cancer Research Centre shows that Heidelberg is expanding its research priorities in the prevention and early diagnosis of cancer. Ulrichs main focus has been on the folic acid metablism C1 compounds and inflammation.

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…

Big Data - 13/03/2018

“More data does not automatically imply more knowledge“

In Germany, one of the big names in evidence-based medicine is Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Gerd Antes, co-director of Cochrane Germany. In the following interview, Antes talks about the hype surrounding big data, warns against false promises and reminds us about what is taken for granted.

Article - 19/11/2009

Cellzome - kinase inhibitors for therapy

Cellzome is a privately-owned biotechnology company which develops new drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases at its two company sites in Heidelberg (Germany) and Cambridge (UK).

Dossier - 05/08/2013

Progress expands bioethical boundaries

Bioethics is a rich and continually evolving field. In the broadest sense, bioethics relates to the way human individuals treat any form of life. The issue of whether human beings have the right to do whatever they want goes way back. However, rapid progress in genetic engineering and cell biology means that it is now necessary to look at certain issues in a new way and recognise that not everything that is technically feasible should actually be…

Article - 18/09/2011

BMBF project AllerGen: DNA test to protect consumers against food allergens

People who are hypersensitive to a particular food protein can develop an adverse reaction to the smallest amount of the allergenic protein that can range from mild to severe. Although many allergic people are aware of their hypersensitivity to certain food proteins they can have allergic reactions because they are not always aware of the presence of allergenic proteins in certain food products. This is why the reliable sensitive and quantitative…

Article - 16/07/2012

"Autism gene" causes problems in the composition of synapses

A new finding in the field of autism research has attracted the attention of the scientific world. Although the international group of researchers that published the findings in the renowned journal Nature have so far only managed to switch off two genes in mice, the animals’ conspicuous behaviour change has nevertheless made the scientific world sit up and listen. It appears that the enigmatic neuropsychiatric disease could have a genetic…

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.

Article - 17/10/2011

Papillomaviruses as cancer-causing agents and how they can be fought off

Studies presented at the recent International Papillomavirus Conference in Berlin demonstrate that vaccination can prevent infection with the types of HPV that cause the majority of cervical cancers. New improved vaccines to prevent HPV infections as well as therapeutic vaccines that are effective in people that are already infected are currently being developed. In addition, research has shown that other cancers can also be caused by infective…

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.

Prof. Dr. Michael Reth is active in the field of immunology and signalling. He is an experienced scientist who is well aware of the difficulty and the cumbersome nature of deciphering signals and signalling pathways. The Freiburg bioss excellence cluster - the Centre of Biological Signalling Studies - is Reths brainchild. Karin Bundschuh from BioRegio Freiburg spoke with the scientist who works at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and the…

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.

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.

Dossier - 18/06/2012

Biobanks – treasure chests for biomedical research

Biobanking is still a very specialist subject. The Research Committee at the German Bundestag, the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag and the German Ethics Council are all interested in this biomedical research tool, which is both necessary and meaningful. However, opinions with regard to the ethical, legal and technical approach to biobanks differ. Since March 2012 it has become absolutely clear that Germany will not pass a…

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.

Dossier - 29/03/2009

Options for the food industry

Biotechnology has since found its way into the food industry and in fact into the entire value creation chain from raw material production to food processing to the sale of the final product. There are many ways in which biotechnology can contribute to better food products. These include the use of enzymes and microorganisms as well as in the production of food supplements and to improve analytic tests.