Healthcare industry

Article - 21/02/2018

HepaRegeniX – a start-up is taking it up a step!

HepaRegeniX, a biotech company founded in 2016, specialises in developing drugs that restore the regenerative capacity of diseased livers. The three founders of the biotech start-up, Prof. Dr. Lars Zender, Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer and Dr. Wolfgang Albrecht, anticipate starting clinical testing of the first drug candidate in 2019.

Article - 18/01/2018

Medications that target metastasing tumours

Tumour metastases are often resistant to the drug that is used to eliminate the primary tumour. Genome-wide analyses of mutation patterns in the primary tumour and its metastases provide information on the aggressiveness of cancer and may help to find the best available means of further treatment. This has been demonstrated by scientists from Heidelberg in a clinical trial on the molecular evolution of renal cancer.

The next generation of Antiviral Therapies: Co-Led by Stichting Participatie Atriva and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Atriva Therapeutics GmbH has received a second tranche of its running seed financing in total of € 3 Mn from Dutch, German and Canadian investors, after lead compound ATR-002 (Atriva’s antiviral MEK-Inhibitor against Influenza) has passed an important preclinical milestone paving the way to clinical development stage.

Article - 04/07/2017

Ruxolitinib – successful graft-versus-host disease treatment

Graft-versus-host disease is a serious complication in leukaemia patients who have been given a blood stem cell transplant from a genetically different person. Prof. Dr. Nikolas von Bubnoff and Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser from the Department of Haematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at Freiburg University Medical Centre initiated a Germany-wide study to show that an active substance called ruxolitinib has a promising therapeutic effect.…

The next generation of Antiviral Therapies: Led by Stichting Participatie Atriva together with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Atriva Therapeutics GmbH has received seed financing from Dutch and German private investors to advance Atriva’s antiviral MEK-Inhibitors (Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase inhibitor) against Influenza into the clinical development stage.

HepaRegeniX GmbH, a new Biotech company developing innovative treatments for liver diseases, announced today the completion of a €9 million Series A financing. The round was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund GmbH (BIVF) and Novo Seeds, and complemented by the High-Tech Gruenderfonds and coparion.

Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen – 14 December 2016: amcure, a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class cancer therapeutics, today announced the closing of a Series B financing round amounting to a total of EUR 6 million.

Article - 19/07/2016

Licence to kill – the enormous potential of CAR T cells

With 6 million euros of EU funding, the CARAT project aims to optimise a technology called CAR T that is used to equip T cells with antibody fragments and specifically direct them to destroy cancer cells. The CARAT consortium comprises a multinational team of experts from the Institute for Cell- and Gene Therapy at the Freiburg University Medical Center led by Prof. Dr. Toni Cathomen and seven partner institutions. Cathomen’s team is developing…

Article - 07/01/2016

New protein helps B cells generate an effective immune response

The human immune system plays a key role for human health. Dr. Gina Fiala, a scientist in Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schamel’s team in the Department of Immunology at Freiburg University, has discovered Kidins220/ARMS in B cells. Kidins220/ARMS is part of the adaptive immune system where it plays a key role in the maturation of B cells.

Article - 14/12/2015

Cathepsin L: overcoming stress in tumours

Cathepsins are proteases, i.e. enzymes that break down proteins into smaller fragments. They are also involved in the formation of new blood vessels and wound healing. Another thing that cathepsins do is help tumours spread and form metastases in the body. Prof. Dr. Thomas Reinheckel and his team from the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Cell Research at the University of Freiburg are studying how this happens. Insights into the role of…

Dossier - 20/01/2014

Optogenetics: switching cell activity on and off with light

What still sounds like science fiction to the general public has long been within reach for many years scientists have been able to manipulate neural activity selectively with light. They use different wavelengths to turn cells on and off as if they were a standard switch. Optogenetics is an emerging technology that combines optics and genetics. The technology is already used in many different ways for many different purposes by numerous research…

Article - 09/12/2013

Photoreceptors added to optogenetic toolbox

After light-gated ion channels in nerve cells had successfully paved the way for optogenetics numerous tools have been added to the optogenetic toolbox. Photoreceptors are novel optogenetic tools which when coupled to enzymes and kinases can trigger certain cell functions upon illumination with light. Prof. Dr. Wilfried Weber synthetic biologist at BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies at the University of Freiburg is one of the…

Dossier - 02/12/2013

RNA interference: confidence is returning

The 15-year history of RNA interference is not short on dramatic effects. It begins with the unexpected discovery and publication of the process of post-transcriptional gene silencing in 1998 for which the two Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine just eight years after their discovery. In 2001 Thomas Tuschl succeeded in switching off genes in human cells with small synthetic pieces of RNA…

Article - 27/05/2013

Autophagy – a stupid idea?

The term autophagy or autophagocytosis comes from the Greek and means something like to eat oneself. During normal cell operation waste accumulates that needs to be disposed of in some way as it would otherwise impair crucial cellular processes. But even in times of starvation cells behave just as the body as a whole does the system does not become inoperative immediately and die but draws on its reserves. On the cellular level this happens by…

Dossier - 13/05/2013

The human proteome – the next major goal

The “Human Proteome Project”, a ten-year global initiative that is making a systematic effort to map all human proteins, has moved from the planning to the experimental stage. How significant and how effective the project will be depends on how much the resources offered are used by proteome researchers and on the data that the researchers bring into the project.

Article - 14/01/2013

Boehringer takes a deep breath: a look into the company’s respiratory R&D pipeline

At its 3rd International Research & Development (R&D) press conference, Boehringer Ingelheim gave journalists insights into its R&D pipeline. Around 200 scientists at the company’s site in Biberach are investigating new treatment options for patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma, idiopathic lung fibrosis, lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. In addition, the researchers are also focusing on the…

Article - 03/12/2012

Targeted therapeutic approaches that revolutionise melanoma treatment

Melanoma is difficult to treat once it has spread from the skin to other parts of the body. Classical chemotherapy is often ineffective and the majority of patients die within a few months after diagnosis. However, the biggest breakthrough in around 30 years has now been achieved with the development of kinase inhibitors that directly interfere with the cancer cells’ molecular signalling pathways. Clinical research into the application of kinase…

Article - 23/01/2012

Peter Rodemann – a career in radiobiology

Prof. Dr. H. Peter Rodemann has been head of the Division of Radiobiology and Molecular Environmental Research at Tübingen University Hospital for around 20 years. He has been awarded numerous prizes for his outstanding achievements, particularly during the second half of 2011 when he was awarded the Ulrich Hagen Prize by the German Society for Biological Radiation Research as well as being elected member of the German Academy of Sciences…

Article - 09/01/2012

Biomarkers to combat lung cancer

A biomarker-driven personalised therapeutic approach to lung cancer is possible – this is the conclusion reached by the BATTLE trial. The preliminary results of the trial were summarised by scientists from the Thoraxklinik at Heidelberg University Hospital in the May 2011 issue of “Clinical Investigation”.

Dossier - 12/12/2011

Development of new molecular biomarkers

Biomarkers are playing an increasing role in drug discovery and development. They can be used as molecular indicators for diseases and disease risks as well as for monitoring the effectiveness of therapy. Highly specific molecular biomarkers are being identified using state-of-the-art technologies from the fields of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Press release - 16/09/2011

Cellzome Achieves Clinical Candidate Milestone from Inflammation Alliance with GlaxoSmithKline

Cellzome’s Kinobeads™ platform drives design of selective clinical candidate and lead for additional kinase target. Cellzome announces that it has successfully reached the clinical candidate milestone for a program as well as a lead declaration milestone for a further target (under a separate program) as part of the kinase alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The achievement of these milestones triggers undisclosed payments from GSK.

Article - 14/09/2011

COMBINE 2011 – coordination of systems biology standards

Systems biologists and bioinformaticians from all over the world met in the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies in early September 2011 with the aim of coordinating the various community standards and formats in systems biology and related fields. The “Computational Modelling in Biology Network” (COMBINE) aims to advance international understanding and cooperation in the field of systems biology.

Article - 22/08/2011

Jörg Overhage investigates how bacteria react to stress

Bacteria have been around for a very long time and they will probably still be around in the future. They are able to adapt to any factor that is potentially fatal to cells heat hunger radiation toxic chemicals or immune attacks. However tolerance to stress is not only characteristic of individual bacteria bacteria join forces whenever inhospitable conditions arise. A team of researchers led by Dr. Jörg Overhage at the Karlsruhe Institute of…

Press release - 30/06/2011

Cancer treatments: New information from fission yeast

When a cell divides the genetic information in the chromosomes must be passed on error-free to the daughter cells. Researchers at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory in Tübingen are studying this process using fission yeast as a model organism. In cooperation with researchers at the University of Tübingen they succeeded in attributing additional tasks to the Aurora enzymes which were already recognized as important cellular tools for the reliable…