Healthcare industry

Article - 14/06/2010

Promoters for the construction of genetic circuits

Gene switches or promoters are crucially important for the regulation of all cellular activities and thus play a pivotal role for researchers constructing externally controllable genetic circuits using synthetic biology methods. The most common artificial regulatory system uses the Tet technology and tetracycline-sensitive promoters invented by Bujard and his team.

Article - 20/06/2011

Molecular biologists to celebrate 50th anniversary of Jacob and Monod’s operon model

Leading molecular biologists from around the world came together at a conference jointly organized by the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and the Institut Pasteur in Paris between 17th and 20th May to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the operon concept published by François Jacob and Jacques Monod in 1961. The scientists discussed concepts and research results influenced by the operon model, which have led to our present…

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.

Article - 15/09/2014

Gene therapies for pulmonary disease are close to final development

Gene therapy currently offers the only chance of curing genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis and beta thalassaemia. Gene therapy is the replacement or correction of a mutated gene with DNA that encodes a functional gene. Intensive research has been going on in this field for many years however only a handful gene therapies are available at this point in time. Dr. Michael Kormann junior professor at the Childrens Hospital at the University of…

Press release - 21/01/2010

Open access drug discovery database launches with half a million compounds

ChEMBLdb a vast online database of information on the properties and activities of drugs and drug-like small molecules and their targets was launched on January 18 2010 with information on over half a million compounds. The data lie at the heart of translating information from the human genome into successful new drugs in the clinic.

Germany will contribute another project to the International Cancer Genome Consortium ICGC. Coordinated by the German Cancer Research Center and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf physicians and molecular biologists will now start to investigate the genetic causes of early prostate cancer.

Press release - 20/01/2008

Genetic causes and therapy of cardiac insufficiency

Since 2001 the Medical University Hospital in Heidelberg has coordinated the Cardiovascular Network within the framework of the National Genome Research Network NGFN which also involves nine other big German university hospitals.

Tumors of the pancreas are particularly feared. They are usually discovered late and mortality is high. Until now, no targeted and personalized therapies exist. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine* (HI-STEM) have now succeeded for the first time in defining two differently aggressive molecular subtypes of pancreatic carcinoma.

Press release - 26/05/2014

50 years of research for life without cancer

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg turns 50 this year. Conducting research on the basic biological mechanisms of cancer, the DKFZ has been instrumental in our current understanding of the development and growth of cancer and has advanced the development of enhanced methods for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Proposals must be submitted prior to 7th May 2008.

GATC, one of the leading sequencing provider will be a part of the Eurofins Group as of July 2017 to create the leading company in the worldwide sequencing market.

Press release - 14/12/2012

Need for Speed: High-speed Measurements of Molecular Motion in the Cell Nucleus

They were able to measure the binding of highly specialised protein complexes that specifically change the spatial structure of the genetic information thereby controlling the readout of the DNA information. The work of Dr. Karsten Rippe and his team was carried out at the BioQuant Center of Heidelberg University and the German Cancer Research Center. Their research has demonstrated that the positioning of nucleosomes complexes of DNA and…

Despite having thousands of applicable ideas and having set up his own company, Prof. Alfred Nordheim sees himself as a true basic scientist. At this year’s International Genetics Congress in Berlin, the director of the Interfaculty Institute of Cell Biology at the University of Tübingen was elected president of the International Genetics Federation (IGF).

Personalised Medicine - 04/05/2017

Big data make therapy work better

An international team of researchers has shown for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) that cancer therapy can be personalised using big data. The authors of the study “believe this paper is a step towards validation of genetic techniques as a route to personalised medicine”.

Article - 26/03/2012

More public attention for exotic diseases - Part 2

An international conference on rare diseases was held in Freiburg Germany in February 2012 where BIOPRO talked with Prof. Dr. Bodo Grimbacher director of the Centre of Chronic Immunodeficiency CCI in Freiburg and Prof. Dr. Maximilian Muenke paediatrician and human geneticist from the National Human Genome Research Institute NHGRI in the USA. Between them the two experts have a great deal of experience in rare diseases amongst other areas. Read in…

Article - 19/12/2011

Daniel Summerer: new ways of biosynthesising proteins with novel functions

Dr. Daniel Summerer from the University of Konstanz deals with the design of proteins and peptides with novel functions. His approach involves the ribosomal incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins with the objective of producing proteins with novel functions in living cells.

Article - 15/06/2015

Centre for Personalised Medicine in Tübingen - developing tailor-made treatments for patients

Since January 2015, Tübingen has been home to a Centre for Personalised Medicine (ZPM). Twenty-three institutes and hospitals have joined forces to improve diagnosis of disease and develop individualised treatments for patients with a variety of diseases. In parallel, the centre also develops new diagnostic strategies. This means, for example, that data derived from the analysis of the entire genetic material of cells, proteins and metabolic…

Article - 23/06/2009

Hepatitis B and the Münchhausen enzyme

Virologists in Prof. Dr. Michael Nassals group at the University Medical Centre in Freiburg are investigating the molecular mechanisms used by the hepatitis B virus to reproduce. The researchers work might in future be able to help the three to four hundred million people worldwide who suffer from chronic hepatitis B infections.

Article - 04/10/2010

Computer models for underestimated all-rounders

It has now become clear that non-coding RNAs are the puppeteers in cells. Prof. Dr. Rolf Backofens team at the University of Freiburg is developing an indispensable tool for doing just this in the form of computer programmes that generate two-dimensional structural models of these tiny all-rounders.

European biotech-platform and drug discovery companies will have easier access to Polyclone Bioservices assay design and validation services through its newly announced partnership with Innovendia Consulting from Owingen. EU and national government funded consortia will benefit from the more immediate availability of Polyclones unique combination of in vitro in silico assay design and validation capabilities.

Article - 10/12/2012

A machine learning method for the prediction of regulatory interactions

Heidelberg bioinformaticians have developed a novel method for the automated prediction of regulatory interactions. The regulatory interaction predictor, a machine-learning based approach for predicting interactions between DNA-binding transcription factors and their target genes and obtaining important insights into the gene regulatory networks in complex cells.

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

Article - 08/07/2009

The small directors in the cell

They have been overlooked for quite a long time, despite the fact that they constitute a large part of the genetic material in many organisms. Biologists are gradually discovering that bacteria as well as human and plant cells need them for proper function. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hess and his team at the Institute of Biology III at the University of Freiburg have been focusing on them for a number of years – we are referring to non-coding RNAs. The…

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,…

Dossier - 01/10/2012

Systems biology: understanding complex biological systems

Systems biology studies complex interactions within biological systems on the genome proteome and organelle level. Many techniques from the fields of systems theory and associated fields can be used to gain an understanding of the behaviour and biological mechanisms of cellular systems.