Healthcare industry

The Dr. Ernst Wiethoff Award 2008 for innovative clinical research worth 25000 euros was presented to Jan Münch from the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital of Ulm. Münch discovered a new protein that blocks the HI virus.

Article - 29/04/2021

Nanobodies for determining neutralising antibodies after corona infection

After contact with a pathogen, ideally our immune system generates neutralising antibodies to prevent a future infection. With NeutrobodyPlex, scientists from Reutlingen and Tübingen have developed a highly specific test procedure based on single-domain antibodies (nanobodies) that can be used to easily and reliably determine the quality of the immune response against the novel coronavirus.

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

Article - 22/02/2010

Immune system discovers mould fungi through surface structures

Mould fungus spores which are found in air aerosols are constantly being taken up in the air we inhale. As a rule this poses no danger to healthy people. However depending on the quantity of spores inhaled and the duration of exposure mould fungi could possibly lead or contribute to lung diseases and allergies. Dr. Mardas Daneshian and his team at the University of Constance are focusing on the immunostimulatory capacity of fungal spores. The…

Press release - 28/11/2010

Immune cells react to their immediate environment

A new collaborative research centre (SFB) will be established in Heidelberg to investigate chronic inflammatory diseases. Scientists from the University of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center will be funded with around 10 million euros for the research. Prof. Meuer from the University Hospital of Heidelberg will coordinate the new SFB.

Article - 14/11/2011

Marina Freudenberg and Chris Galanos – more than 40 years of bacterial defence research

This years Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to three renowned scientists one of whom is the American Bruce Beutler who was instrumental in clarifying the structure of the mammalian Toll-like 4 TLR4 receptor. Prof. Dr. med. Marina Freudenberg and Dr. Dr. h.c. Chris Galanos from the Freiburg-based Max Planck Institute MPI of Immunobiology and Epigenetics have co-authored the key publication that led to the award of the Nobel Prize…

Press release - 09/07/2009

Marcus Groettrup: Discovery in the kingdom of cells

Prof. Marcus Groettrup has been closely investigating the daily defence battle of the human immune system for a number of years. The researcher from Constance has now found a substance that has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of rheumatism.

Article - 21/04/2009

Two separate defence systems?

Are the innate and the adaptive immune systems really completely independent from each other? Dr. Mathias Lucas from the University of Freiburg investigates receptor proteins that are found in the cells of both systems. It is possible that such systems might not only play a role in infections or cancer, but also in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Article - 23/08/2010

Antibiotics for the prevention of malaria

Researchers from Heidelberg and Berlin have shown that if malaria-infected mice are administered an antibiotic, no parasites appear in the blood and the mice are protected from this life-threatening disease. The scientists believe that antibiotics also have the potential to strengthen the human immune system as well as making it possible to provide a natural needle-free vaccination against malaria.

Article - 14/03/2011

Mast cells as the central and pivotal points of allergy processes

Mast cells of the human immune system play a key role in allergic and inflammatory reactions. Activated mast cells release a number of substances that mediate an immune response. The process by which such mediators are released is still largely unknown. Scientists from the University of Hohenheim are focusing on finding out how allergic reactions are induced by mast cells.

Press release - 10/12/2012

Cocktail boosts immune cells in fighting cancer

Natural killer cells (or NK cells), as part of the body´s immune system, can effectively fight cancer. Unfortunately, they quickly lose their aggressiveness and hence are unable to reject solid tumors. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now discovered a cocktail consisting of three different immune mediators that leaves NK killer cells active over a long period of time. In mice,…

Press release - 08/01/2010

Harmless or lethal? Insilico Furthers Research on Fungal Infections

Candida albicans is a harmless yeast fungus – at least most of the time. However, if the immune system is weak, then the fungus normally found on everyone’s skin and mucous membranes can become a lethal threat. Insilico Biotechnology is participating in a joint project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in which interactions between fungus and human host cells are to be studied on the molecular level with the…

Dossier - 16/12/2021

Advanced therapy medicinal products: gene and cell therapies

Novel gene and cell therapies for treating incurable and hereditary diseases have raised high expectations. However, success has so far been limited to the long-established bone marrow transplants involving the administration of haematopoietic stem cells used to treat blood cancer. CAR T-cell therapies have recently emerged as a major new hope in cancer treatment.

Researchers from Freiburg and Harvard publish the three-dimensional structure of the B cell antigen receptor, shedding new light on its composition.

Article - 15/03/2010

Andreas Diefenbach: A molecular approach to disease mechanisms

Prof. Dr. Andreas Diefenbach began his academic career as a philosophy student. Nowadays, the immunologist at the Freiburg University Medical Centre investigates how cells of the innate immune system fight off cancer and infections. He believes that, in contrast to all other subjects, immunology is an area that very much focuses on concepts. Diefenbach’s research frequently gives rise to situations needing new paradigms.

The development of immunotherapies against blood cancer could be more successful if T cells are activated moderately rather than excessively. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have now been able to show this in mice: If the researchers blocked a cytokine that slows down the immune system, the T cells became exhausted and failed in the fight against leukemia.

Article - 24/11/2015

Researchers from Tübingen set out to thwart viral survival strategies

Around two thirds of people carry the JC polyomavirus, a normally harmless virus that, in immunocompromised patients, can evade the body’s defences and cause a fatal brain infection. An international research network has now found a way to activate the immune system and attack the virus.

Cancer cells use tricks to evade the immune system. Thus, for example, they attract specific blood cells which suppress the body’s own defense mechanisms. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), collaborating with colleagues of the University Surgical Hospital in Heidelberg and an international research team, have investigated these processes in bowel cancer. The results of their research have now…

Intestinal peptide heals lung - 14/10/2020

Inhalation of intestinal hormone VIP helps against immunotherapy-induced pneumonia

If cancer patients develop pneumonitis, an inflammation of the lungs resulting from immunotherapy, their symptoms and restrictions in lung function can often only be alleviated with cortisone. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Joachim Müller-Quernheim and Dr. Björn Frye from the Freiburg University Medical Centre have been able to cure a patient's pneumonitis by inhalation of a long-known neuropeptide.

A particular type of dendritic cell is responsible for the tissue damage that occurs in non-alcoholic steatohepatits (NASH) in mice and humans. The dendritic cells cause aggressive, proinflammatory behavior in T cells, as now discovered by researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in collaboration with colleagues from Israeli research institutes. Blocking these dendritic cells alleviates symptoms in mice.

Researchers from Heidelberg have discovered that certain oxygen compounds are produced in greater quantities in the body due to cancer or inflammation and that this leads to the alteration of a protein that controls the flexibility and adaptability of certain immune cells.

Dr. Adelheid Cerwenka was awarded the Georges Köhler Prize 2009 for her outstanding achievements in her research on natural killer cells and their importance in the defence against tumours. The Georges Köhler Prize, which is sponsored by the Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG and awarded by the German Society of Immunology, comes with a purse of €3000. The prize is given to scientists under 40 for outstanding research into the immune system.

Dossier - 09/09/2013

New trends in the field of immunology

B- and T- lymphocytes along with macrophages have long been regarded as the most important cells of the human immune system and have thus been a major focus of research. This has now changed and it is now the dendritic cells that are regarded as the major components of the adaptive immune system and have become a major focus of scientific interest. Research into innate immune defence mechanisms has also become more important due to the discovery…

Article - 10/06/2021

New study: vaccine therapy for treating patients with chronic leukaemia

Personalised peptide vaccination is expected to improve the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. A research team from Tübingen has started a Phase I clinical trial with CLL patients who will undergo ibrutinib treatment. Other leukaemia sufferers as well as cancer patients in general are also expected to benefit in the long term.

Tumor vaccines can help the body fight cancer. Mutations in the tumor genome often lead to protein changes that are typical of cancer. A vaccine can alert the patients' immune system to these mutated proteins. For the first time, physicians and cancer researchers from Heidelberg and Mannheim have now carried out a clinical trial to test a mutation-specific vaccine against malignant brain tumors.