Healthcare industry

Article - 04/07/2013

Experimental evidence of stem cells for metastasis

For the first time, scientists from Heidelberg have characterised cancer cells that initiate metastasis in the blood of breast cancer patients using an in-vivo xenograft mouse model. These cells have the properties of cancer stem cells and are characterised by three surface molecules that can be used as biomarkers for disease progression.

Dossier - 01/04/2013

Retroviruses: from infectious agent to therapeutic assistant

Viruses are infectious particles that use the machinery and metabolism of a host cell to replicate. Despite some similarities with accepted forms of life viruses are not considered as such. The family of retroviruses is particularly known for its most notorious representative i. e. the human immunodeficiency virus HIV which leads to AIDS and for which no cure or effective vaccine is currently available. However retroviruses are not only of…

Article - 28/01/2013

Epigenetics and childhood blood cancer

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia JMML is the most common chronic cancer of the blood in children and tends to have a poor response to chemotherapy. Prof. Dr. Christian Flotho and his team from the Centre of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine in Freiburg have shown that epigenetic mechanisms play a key role in the pathogenesis of JMML. As part of a German Research Foundation priority programme the researchers from Freiburg are working on…

Article - 21/01/2013

Early warning signals of ageing in stem cells

The large international project SyStemAge is specifically focused on the role of stem cells in ageing and age-related diseases. Coordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Heidelberg University Hospital the SyStemAge consortium seeks to identify the causes and molecular pathways associated with the processes of ageing on the stem-cell level as well as developing novel strategies for the early treatment of age-related…

Article - 18/12/2012

Gene therapy medicinal products: the first gene therapy product has been approved – where does the future lie?

Is gene therapy close to broad clinical application? Following negative headlines at the end of the 1990s gene therapy had almost disappeared from the public radar to become an issue almost exclusively dealt with by research laboratories. Gene therapy has now reappeared in the public domain since the European Medicines Agency EMA gave the Dutch biotech company uniQure the go-ahead for the application of somatic gene therapy for the treatment of a…

Article - 08/10/2012

The Heidelberg Institute of Human Genetics celebrates its 50th anniversary

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital of Heidelberg celebrates its major achievements in molecular genetic analyses, the diagnosis of hereditary diseases and tumour diseases as well as its research into the molecular causes of genetic defects. The largest institute of human genetics in Germany is also at the forefront of genetic counselling and debates on health policies and ethical…

Press release - 16/08/2012

Blood cancer cells initiate signalling cascade

Researchers of the University of Freiburg have identified a new mechanism that causes immune cells to convert into malignant cancer cells. In Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia CLL one of the most common types of blood cancer in the Western world cells themselves carry the key for the pathogenic transformation the scientists report in the journal Nature. Understanding these underlying mechanisms could facilitate new therapies with reduced side…

Article - 25/06/2012

New cooperative research centre on leukaemia established in Ulm

The traditionally strong research into leukaemia at Ulm University is to be further strengthened by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The DFG will fund the new cooperative research centre (SFB) with 8.8 million euros for a period of four years, starting in July 2012. The SFB 1074 “Experimental Models and Clinical Translation in Leukaemias” aims to bring together basic research-oriented and clinical research.

Press release - 04/06/2012

DFG establishes 20 new Collaborative Research Centres

The support ranges from new therapies for multiple sclerosis via the heroic tradition in ancient time to functional microgels. Attached is a selection of research approaches in science in Baden-Württemberg.

Article - 09/01/2012

Nutritional medicine: Can certain foods help treat cancer?

Researchers at the Centre for Nutritional Medicine (ZEM), a joint institution of the Universities of Hohenheim and Tübingen, are investigating whether and to what extent certain food components can support the treatment of cancer and are hoping to derive scientifically founded dietary recommendations from their findings.

Article - 19/12/2011

Gundram Jung – a pioneer in antibody-mediated cancer immunotherapy

Physicist, medical doctor, researcher and now also a founder of a company – Professor Dr. Gundram Jung’s career has never gone in a completely straight line although his goal has always been the same: to develop innovative immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Jung’s genetically modified antitumour antibodies are now close to clinical application.

Article - 19/09/2011

Christian Buske and his research into leukaemia stem cells

A clinical accolade for a model: the gene signature of leukaemia stem cells allows predictions to be made on the course of disease in adults suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). A study carried out by an international team of researchers shows that AML contains cells with stem cell properties (leukaemia stem cells, LSC). The study also found that patients who strongly expressed the LSC signature had a much shorter survival time than…

Article - 12/09/2011

TransLimm brings new immunotherapies to patients more rapidly

With the establishment of the Center for Translational Immunology TransLimm the University of Tübingen has initiated a network whose objective is to quickly and effectively transfer innovative therapies into clinical application. Patients suffering from acute leukaemia might soon benefit from therapies involving antibodies optimized by recombinant antibody technology.

Article - 25/07/2011

Silke Brüderlein has “green fingers” for cell cultures

Many researchers in the biosciences work with cell cultures, but not all of them seem to understand them at a deeper level. The biologist Silke Brüderlein from the Institute of Pathology in Ulm is a specialist in cell culture and is well aware of the problems that might arise when working with cell cultures.

The Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation for People with Rare Diseases has awarded the 2011 Eva Luise Köhler Research Prize, which includes prize money of 50,000 euros, to an interdisciplinary team of researchers: Professor Dr. Christoph Klein, Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at the Hannover Medical School (MHH), Professor Dr. Christopher Baum, Department of Experimental Haematology (MHH), Professor Dr. Christoph von Kalle,…

Article - 21/02/2011

Hope for more effective brain tumour therapy

Glioblastoma is the most common and most aggressive type of brain tumour in humans. It has a tendency to recur and it carries a bad prognosis. Intensive research into the molecular reaction chains involved in its pathogenesis has led to promising and effective treatment strategies.

Press release - 13/02/2011

Leukaemia researchers from Ulm identify high-risk patients

The University Hospital in Ulm has announced the achievement of a “milestone“ in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). ALL is the most frequent type of cancer in children and adolescents. An international team of researchers led by a research group at the Department of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Ulm University Hospital has succeeded in deciphering characteristic gene signatures that lead to the recurrence of this…

Article - 07/02/2011

The discovery of the individual as business model

The move towards personalised medicine has made considerable progress, in particular in the field of oncology, where it is leading to the close integration of diagnostics and therapy as well as to the development of profitable new business models, some of which have controversial exclusive legal claims.

The European LeukemiaNet ELN an EU-funded organisation of physicians scientists and patients with an interest in leukaemia has an important goal the successful treatment of leukaemia. This goal is shared by the pharmaceutical company Novartis. The company will now invest another 6 million euros in the already successful project.

Article - 30/08/2010

Genetic testing for the prevention of diseases?

Genetic testing is beginning to play an important role in personalised medicine and is indispensable for the diagnosis and therapy of many diseases. However, the preventive and diagnostic power of many genetic tests is still inferior to traditional diagnostic tests. In addition, commercial genetic tests do not always live up to the claims made about them.

Article - 12/06/2010

Correcting enzyme defects using stem cells

Bone marrow transplantation was originally developed for the treatment of leukaemias and other malignant diseases of the haemotopoietic system. Thanks to increasing technological process it has been possible to considerably expand the treatment spectrum over the last few years. Dr. Ingo Müller paediatrician at the University Hospital in Tübingen now uses bone marrow transplantation for the therapy of genetic metabolic diseases with highly…

Press release - 27/08/2009

The first imaging of active leukaemia cells in the body

A team of physicians and scientists from Ulm (Germany) and Iowa City (USA) have shown how the activity of leukaemia cells can be visualised in the body by using a special marker and various different methods. The publication relating to this finding has been awarded the “Editor’s Choice Award” as one of the three best publications in 2008 by the renowned journal “Journal of Nuclear Medicine”.

Press release - 07/08/2009

Silenced genes as a warning sign of blood cancer

Important growth inhibitors are often switched off in the genetic material of cancer cells by specific chemical DNA modifications. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), in collaboration with colleagues from Ohio State University in the United States, have investigated how this happens. They discovered, in mice, that cancer-typical DNA methylation occurs long before the first symptoms of…

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has granted the Medical Hospital in Freiburg and the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg funding for a proposal applying to become one of the DFG’s 18 priority programmes in 2009.

Article - 09/07/2009

Four Nobel Prizes for a chicken virus

The Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) was the starting point of the discovery that cancer can be brought on by infections. The enzyme “reverse transcriptase”, which led to a rethinking and technological revolution in the field of molecular biology, was discovered in this retrovirus along with oncogenes that led to a completely new concept of cancer development in molecular genetics and eventually to the development of a new generation of cancer…