Healthcare industry

Press release - 12/07/2011

Cortisol Controls Recycling of Bile Acids

Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center DKFZ have made a discovery in mice whose liver cells are unable to receive cortisol signals This hormone is responsible for a process in which the liver recycles bile acids from the blood. If this recycling is disrupted the animals develop gallstones and lose weight because they are no longer able to digest dietary fats.

Press release - 08/06/2011

NanoDex Inc.

NanoDex is an RD venture company located in Ebina Kanagawa Prefecture JAPAN. The core technology of NanoDex is the synthesis and application of folate-modified cyclodextrins ND1 as artificial cancer antibodies.

Article - 14/03/2011

Synthesising proteins from non-natural building blocks?

Dr. Birgit Wiltschi from the University of Freiburg has been awarded funding from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science Research and the Arts under the Biotechnology and Medical Technology Idea Competition for a highly ambitious project she wants to learn how proteins can be modified using non-natural building blocks that will enable the engineered proteins to specifically target receptors on cancer cells amongst other things.

Article - 07/03/2011

Thomas Brunner: steroid synthesis in the intestine

A research team led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Brunner at the University of Konstanz has found out that intestinal epithelial cells are able to synthesise anti-inflammatory steroids glucocorticoids following immunological stress which makes a considerable contribution to the maintenance of local immune homoeostasis. Brunner plans to use his findings to develop a therapeutic approach for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Article - 28/02/2011

The regulation of the intestinal immune system

If the interplay of factors that regulate the intestinal immune system tips out of balance, this could result in allergic reactions or serious inflammatory intestinal diseases. Professor Dr. med. Stefan Meuer, Managing Director of the Institute for Immunology at the University Hospital in Heidelberg, is focusing on the molecular mechanisms of mucosal immune regulation.

Article - 28/02/2011

Contact dermatitis – removing a leg from a tripod

Contact dermatitis is one of the most frequent occupational skin reactions resulting from exposure to allergens. Chronic allergic reactions to environmental allergens might sometimes become job- or life-threatening. Prof. Dr. Stefan Martin and his group of researchers in the Allergy Research Group of the Department of Dermatology at the Freiburg University Medical Centre are investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease. One of…

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.

Article - 14/02/2011

A molecule that enables local virus defence

Dr. Markus Mordstein has spent the last four years as a doctoral student at the University of Freiburg investigating the previously relatively unknown interferon lambda. He has been able to show that this molecule has similar protective functions to type I interferons and he has also found that it is far more selective in terms of the site where it exerts its effect.

Article - 14/02/2011

Marilena Manea: targeted chemotherapy to treat cancer

After cardiovascular diseases cancer is the second leading cause of death in Germany. At the University of Konstanz Dr. Marilena Manea and her research group are working on the development of bioconjugates for targeted cancer chemotherapy. The researchers goal is to improve the efficiency and tolerability of the chemotherapeutic drugs that are already being used in hospitals.

Article - 14/02/2011

Affimed’s novel TandAb® antibodies enter clinical development phase

With the initiation in October 2010 of a Phase I (“first in man”) study of the tetravalent, bispecific antibody AFM13 based on its proprietary TandAb® technology, Heidelberg-based Affimed Therapeutics AG has become a clinical drug development company.

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 human olfactory system possesses a special electric amplification mechanism that enables olfactory cells to respond even to extremely weak stimuli. Scientists at Heidelberg University headed by physiologist Prof. Dr. Stephan Frings have now established how this mechanism works. Crucial is the role played by chloride ions stored in the sensory cilia of the nose. As soon as the olfactory receptors in the sensory cilia detect odorants the…

Article - 20/12/2010

Michael Reth – Immunobiological discoveries that meet resistance

Dr Michael Reth professor at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and the University of Freiburg and some of his colleagues have recently uncovered the mechanism that foreign substances use to activate B cells of the immune system. The researchers were using synthetic biology methods long before this particular branch of science existed in its present form. Their results require a paradigm change and a revision of the reference books.

Article - 13/12/2010

Christoph Kleineidam – communication without words

Neuroethologist Dr. Christoph Kleineidam from the University of Konstanz focuses mainly on ants and their highly sensitive sensory system that allows them to communicate with each other by way of pheromones. He believes that these sensory mechanisms can be technologically implemented in the fields of thermosensor and chemosensor technology in the not-too-distant future.

Article - 29/11/2010

Against chronic liver inflammation and liver cancer

Chronic hepatitis B and C are the major causes of liver cancer. In contrast to hepatitis B viruses, there is no hepatitis C virus vaccination available. New research carried out by Professor Bartenschlager and his colleagues from Heidelberg might give rise to new strategies for the development of vaccines and medications for the prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infections.

Article - 29/11/2010

CYP2D6 and the oestrogen receptor

The medicinal adjuvant therapy of breast cancer is a good example of how important it is being aware that different patients metabolise drugs differently. This knowledge plays a key role in the prescription of effective drugs at the correct dose and in preventing adverse reactions and interactions with concomitant drugs.

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.

In two out of three breast tumors, extraordinarily high levels of the estrogen receptor ERá are found. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now uncovered a mechanism which causes this overproduction. This result might contribute to developing new strategies for fighting the most frequent type of cancer affecting women.

Article - 14/11/2010

Maria Leptin – the first woman scientist at the head of the renowned EMBO

In January 2010, the developmental biologist Prof. Dr. Maria Leptin, internationally known for her work on the signalling pathways that regulate tissue differentiation and morphology during Drosophila embryogenesis, was appointed director of the EMBO, one of the most prestigious science organisations in Europe.

Article - 08/11/2010

The masters of cellular circuits

What can nowadays be constructed with molecular building sets? Prof. Dr. Wilfried Weber from the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies BIOSS in Freiburg is the first scientist at the University of Freiburg to receive the prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council ERC with a purse of 1.5 million euros. Webers team recombines cellular components and works on a broad range of different issues.

Press release - 01/11/2010

A virus discloses its secret: how does JCV infect body cells?

Viruses can infect cells when they detect specific attachment sites on the cells’ surface. An international group of researchers, including biochemists from Tübingen, have now discovered the molecular mechanism by which the JCV polyomavirus attaches to these receptors. The researchers deciphered the atomic structure of the virus and for the first time ever were able to prevent the virus from attaching to the host cell and causing infection.

Press release - 12/10/2010

Clarification of stem cell migration – hope for more effective bone marrow transplants

Researchers from the University of Ulm, Germany, and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, USA, have shown that pharmacological inhibition of a signalling pathway triggered by EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) increased the mobilisation of haematopoietic stem cells in mice.

Press release - 17/09/2010

Receptor blockage improves lung function in cystic fibrosis

Dr. Dominik Hartl, who was recently appointed professor at the University Children’s Hospital in Tübingen, particularly focuses on the cellular processes associated with airway inflammation in cystic fibrosis. His research results will be featured as the cover story in Nature Medicine in September 2010.

GENOVAC and Inserm co-develop a novel antibody-based approach for prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

Press release - 23/08/2010

Mystery of nickel allergies solved

Researchers from the University of Gießen and the Mannheim Medical Faculty along with colleagues from Freiburg, Münster and Munich, have made a fundamental contribution to deciphering the biological mechanisms behind nickel allergies. The results, which might be of great importance for developing innovative preventive and therapeutic approaches, have now been published in the current edition of “Nature Immunology”.