Article - 22/06/2021

Using virtual reality in the clinic to rehabilitate patients with cognitive disorders

Outdated and inadequate methods of neurological rehabilitation are still being used for patients with neurological diseases or injuries – and what’s more, the treatment is usually too late. This is because cognitive training is especially important in the critical phases when the brain is particularly plastic. The Heidelberg-based company living brain proves that early treatment is possible using an extremely innovative method – with concentrated…

Using a new combination of three sensors and artificial intelligence, researchers at Heidelberg Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and Heidelberg University Hospital are recognising patterns in babies' movements that show whether their nervous system is developing healthily.

CorTec GmbH, a pioneer in active implantable medical technologies, announced the successful second implantation of its proprietary Brain-Computer Interface system in a clinical trial. The implantation follows neurological gains observed in the study’s first participant. This represents another key milestone to evaluate CorTec’s fully implantable closed-loop BCI platform for therapeutic applications.

Brain-computer interfaces can read neural signals and influence brain activity. We spoke with Pascal Fries about how this technology can benefit people with neurological and psychiatric conditions, future developments, and his views on ethical boundaries.

Project SMARTGAIT - 13/09/2023

Safe and cost-effective analysis of neurological gait disorders with AI

Stroke, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis often resulting in gait disorders in those affected. Gait analyses play a crucial role in the successful evaluation and therapy of such disorders. Current measurement methods are costly and time-consuming. The SMARTGAIT project is therefore developing an innovative AI-based system aimed at performing meaningful gait analyses with the help of simple smartphone video recordings.

Dossier - 23/01/2012

The neurosciences

In recent years, the neurosciences have increasingly made the leap from a purely basic science to applied research. Despite all this, basic research in south-west Germany is more diverse than ever. The discipline still has a number of breakthroughs to look forward to. The brain remains the most enigmatic human organ and one of the fascinating mysteries of the 21st century.

This year, the Brain Prize worth more than one million euros, honors pioneering work on nervous system-cancer interactions: Neurologist Frank Winkler, who researches at the Heidelberg University and at the German Cancer Research Center and treats patients with brain tumors at the Heidelberg University Hospital, discovered that nerve cells in the brain communicate with brain tumor cells. This causes the disease to progress.

Innovation in emergency medicine - 23/05/2024

CARL pushes back the boundaries of resuscitation therapy

Few people survive a cardiac arrest; blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs and the resulting lack of oxygen causes extensive damage to the body. In response to this, researchers at the University Medical Centre Freiburg and Resuscitec GmbH have developed CARL, an innovative resuscitation system, which – in addition to the oxygen level – adjusts numerous blood parameters to individual patient requirements. This greatly improves…

Quantum sensors for magnetic measurements - 02/06/2026

New insights into muscle physiology – contactless and three-dimensional

Contactless measurement of muscle activity and training effects: using highly sensitive quantum sensors, researchers at the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart are setting new standards. This technology has the potential to revolutionise clinical diagnostics and optimise training and neuroscience research.

Multiple sclerosis - 12/03/2020

Direct application of biopharmaceuticals through the nose into the brain

There is currently no cure for multiple sclerosis, the most common neurological autoimmune disease in humans. Biopharmaceuticals that can delay the course of the disease or diminish its effects are often prevented from being fully effective by the blood-brain barrier. A European consortium led by the Fraunhofer IGB, Stuttgart is developing a new technology that can transport an innovative active ingredient directly to the central nervous system.

Germany's most important award for young scientists honors the development of immunotherapies against malignant brain tumors.

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.

Doctors and scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and from Heidelberg University's Medical Faculty Mannheim have successfully tested a neoantigen-specific transgenic immune cell therapy for malignant brain tumors for the first time using an experimental model in mice.

Cancer immunotherapies often fail because the immune cells are paralysed by immunosuppressive conditions in the tumor. Scientists from Heidelberg, Mannheim and Tel Aviv have now shown on tissue samples from patients as well as on tumor models in mice that the functionality of the immune defence depends decisively on certain helper cells.

Tumor vaccines can help the body fight cancer. These vaccines alert the patient's immune system to proteins that are harbouring cancer-typical alterations. Physicians and cancer researchers from Heidelberg and Mannheim have now treated adult patients with advanced midline gliomas, difficult-to-treat brain tumors, with a peptide vaccine for the first time.

Tablet-based diagnostics - 12/04/2023

TuCAN - innovative diagnostic procedure for neuropsychiatric disorders

Neuropsychiatric disorders are often diagnosed late and have a negative impact on quality of life. Diagnosing the disease at an early stage is vital to be able to help those affected by offering them treatment adapted to their specific requirements. This is what the TuCAN project in Tübingen aims to achieve through the early and differential diagnosis of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - 10/12/2024

sync2brain: using magnetic waves to combat depression

In cases where standard therapies for mental illnesses such as depression prove ineffective, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) offers a promising alternative. This method uses magnetic pulses to stimulate specific regions of the brain. The company sync2brain has developed a system that leverages EEG measurements to tailor stimulation to each patient's unique brain wave patterns, that may significantly enhance the therapy's…

A specific variant of the surface protein VSG of African trypanosomes, the causative agents of sleeping sickness, is associated with resistance to the important drug Suramin. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now been able to find a possible explanation for the formation of resistance based on the crystal structure of this protein variant.

The new Center for Bionic Intelligence Tübingen Stuttgart aims to optimize the interaction between humans and technical systems in a fundamentally new way. Scientists from the Universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics are conducting research on intelligent bionic systems that will aid understanding and treatment of certain diseases of the CNS.

Neurosciences - 28/02/2024

Mesh microelectrode arrays: research with brain organoids on a new level

How does the brain work? Brain organoids are derived from pluripotent stem cells and regarded as valuable model systems that can depict some aspects of neurological functioning. Dr. Peter Jones from NMI together with Dr. Thomas Rauen from the MPI for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, has taken organoid research to a new level. His novel mesh microelectrode array (Mesh-MEA) greatly improves the growth and electrophysiological analysis of tissue.

Traumatic brain injuries often lead to complications with long-lasting consequences on memory, concentration and movement control. Detrimental secondary inflammatory reactions at the injured tissue sites are often responsible for this. Researchers from Ulm have now shown that a transcription factor plays a key role in reactions to TBI. When this gene regulator is activated, an elevated neuroimmune response promotes inflammation.

Researchers at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg University Hospital have used modified rabies viruses to label glioblastoma tumour cells and their direct cell contacts in the mouse brain. The new method showed that the tumour cells are connected to different types of nerve cells throughout the entire brain at a very early stage of the disease.

Individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease show altered blood levels indicating damaged neuronal contacts as early as 11 years before the expected onset of dementia symptoms. This is evident in the levels of the protein “beta-synuclein”. An international team report these findings in the journal “Alzheimer’s & Dementia”. The biomarker studied here could potentially help to detect neurodegeneration at an early stage.

Dossier - 01/07/2013

Electrophysiology from cardiac pacemakers to drug discovery

Electrochemical reactions are involved in many processes in the human organism. Electrophysiology is the study of the central processes of electrical and chemical interaction and communication between neurons and muscle cells, including the transmission and processing of signals in the nerves and the subsequent contraction of the muscles. For example, electrophysiology studies examine the rhythm which which our heart pumps blood through the body.

Dr Simon Binder has been awarded a five-year, 1.5 million euro grant from the Carl Zeiss Foundation for his research into novel neuroimplants. Binder will establish the early career research group ‘Biohybrid Neuroimplants based on Soft Hydrogel Electrodes’ at the University of Freiburg. It is affiliated with the research institutions BrainLinks-BrainTools.