Healthcare industry

Article - 26/09/2011

A close look at individual membrane receptors

The majority of research groups around the world working on membrane receptors are concentrating on the interactions between the receptors and the signalling molecules in the interior of cells and each individual receptor tends to be seen as a black box. The independent research group led by junior professor Dr. Maximilian Ulbrich of the BIOSS excellence cluster at the University of Freiburg has developed a high-resolution real-time method for…

Scientists of the University of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Centre have clarified the functional principles of an important receptor for bacterial infections: immune cells recognise bacterial and viral pathogens with a receptor known as toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), which mediates biochemical reaction chains in order to fend off intruders. This discovery made by the Heidelberg researchers paves the way to develop new anti-infective…

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 - 17/08/2009

Death Receptor Regulates Brain Regeneration

The so-called death receptor is well known among experts – it induces programmed cell death. In brain stem cells, however, this molecule has an entirely different function, as shown by scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in an article published in CELL Stem Cell. Here, signals to the death receptor cause the formation of new nerve cells (neurons). When the researchers switched off the receptor…

Press release - 23/04/2010

Previously unknown protein subunits of GABAB receptors identified

Neurobiologists from the Universities of Freiburg and Basel have published a report on previously unknown subunits of GABAB receptors of the central nervous system in the renowned scientific journal Nature. GABAB receptors are transmembrane proteins in nerve cells that are of crucial importance for brain function as well as playing a vital role in therapy and pharmaceutics.

Cannabis intoxication is certainly not the original purpose of the cannabinoid receptors in the human brain. Nowadays there are known body substances which dock to the receptor molecules of nerve cells in a similar way to cannabis. A group of researchers led by pharmacologist Prof. Dr. med. Bela Szabo at the University of Freiburg is investigating the role of this molecular system in the human brain.

Article - 17/12/2012

rent-a-lab – the bioassay specialist

rent-a-lab has been offering services to detect and determine the quantity of biomolecules for around ten years. The company is mainly focused on studies related to the binding of biomolecules to GTP-binding protein-coupled receptors, a field that has attracted a great deal of attention following the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012 for the identification of this important class of receptors.

Scientists have shown that a particular variant of a receptor gene impacts smoking behaviour and hence confers a 30 increase in risk of lung cancer and a 20 increase in risk of peripheral artery disease PAD.

Article - 25/06/2012

Cannabidiol for the treatment of schizophrenic psychoses

A hemp compound has been shown to increase the effect of the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide in the human brain, thus reducing the delusions associated with psychotic diseases. Studies carried out by Prof. Markus Leweke from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim involving patients with acute schizophrenic attacks show that the plant compound is better tolerated than currently approved antipsychotic drugs.

Jakob von Engelhardt leads a new Junior Research Group, “Synaptic Communication and Neurodegeneration”, established by the German Center for NeurodegenerativeDiseases (DZNE) at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) with the aim of combining the competencies of the two institutes. Research topics of the group include the cellular foundations of learning and memory as well as the molecular causes of neurodegenerative diseases.

Dossier - 29/10/2008

Signal transduction - exciting research with huge potential for the future

Signal transduction is one of the most innovative fields of research in the life sciences. Although the scientists are far from being able to understand and decipher everything the signal researchers nevertheless have a good deal of knowledge about the transduction of signals and the different signalling pathways.

Malignant brain tumours do not often respond to promising new drugs. Researchers from Heidelberg have now uncovered a mechanism and a tumour marker that are linked to the development of this resistance. A “death receptor” might possibly indicate the chances of success of chemotherapy at the same time as providing new approaches for developing a new therapy for the successful treatment of brain tumours.

Article - 23/06/2016

The body’s immune system loosens artificial joints

Hip and knee endoprostheses are not nearly as long-lasting as their natural counterparts. Dr. Ulrike Dapunt from the University Hospital Heidelberg’s Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology has now discovered that it is not the bacterial activity or secretions that lead to the degradation of bone during chronic inflammation, but rather local host defence mechanisms.

Professor Dr. Günther Schützs work on the cell- and development-specific gene regulation using nuclear receptors has led amongst other things to new insights into the steroid hormone-dependent early development and differentiation of the nervous system the molecular mechanisms of learning and the development and regulation of drug addiction. Schütz has now been appointed Helmholtz professor which will enable him to continue his work beyond…

Heidelberg neurobiologists decode central mechanism of degenerative processes in the brains of mouse models and develop new principle for therapeutic agents.

Article - 16/06/2014

Methadone – the last step to becoming an anti-cancer drug

It all began several years ago with a surprising discovery in the laboratory. Claudia Friesen, a chemist at Ulm University, discovered that leukaemia cells that were exposed to methadone died within a relatively short period of time. Seven years on and many papers later, what was once a rather exotic substance is now undergoing clinical testing in cancer patients.

Article - 05/09/2016

Apogenix: immuno-oncological protein drugs for the treatment of malignant diseases

Apogenix AG, a biopharmaceutical company from Heidelberg that specialises in immuno-oncology, develops protein drugs that target central signalling pathways involved in regulating the growth, migration and apoptosis of malfunctioning cells and thus offer novel treatment options for cancer and other malignant diseases.

Article - 17/11/2014

About synapses and learning

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks – the old proverb is not totally true. It is now known that the modulation of synaptic functions, including the formation of new neurons, still takes place in old age, although to a lesser extent than in childhood. The human brain stores memories in the form of neural activity patterns. Structural plasticity appears to be the basis for all learning processes. Physician Thomas Hainmüller and Prof. Dr. Marlene…

Rhodopsin mediates between the visual world and our brain. Biophysicists at Freiburg have used infrared spectroscopy to gain detailed insights into the rhodopsin centre to find out how the molecular side chains of the proteins have to interact in order for the brain to understand the visual environment.

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.

Press release - 21/05/2010

The molecular network of “death receptors” on trial

The international ApoNET research project, which is part of a European-wide systems biology initiative, is coordinated by the Mannheim Medical Faculty at the University of Heidelberg. ApoNET researchers use modern genome sequencing methods and computer models to gain a better understanding of apoptosis networks in liver cells. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union with 1.7 million…

Microstructure Technology - 17/07/2020

An electronic nose for many applications

Sensory organs are sophisticated masterpieces of nature. That is why humans have often tried to copy them. Be it cameras or microphones - there are technical objects that have always been based on natural models such as the eye or the ear. For a long time, however, no artificial sense of smell has featured in the technical repertoire. Now researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed an electronic nose. It can…

Press release - 22/04/2010

How nerve cells discriminate olfactory clues

Whether different odours can be quickly discriminated depends on whether certain synapses in the brain are able to inhibit neuronal information processing. Scientists led by Professor Dr. Thomas Kuner at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Heidelberg Medical Faculty and Dr. Andreas Schäfer at the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research have shown that mice lacking a certain receptor in the olfactory bulb are able to discriminate…

Article - 04/03/2010

Asthma and COPD – how to control centres of inflammation

In today’s world, not all asthma patients benefit from adequate treatment. There is no cure at all for people who suffer from COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A group of researchers led by Dr. Marco Idzko at the Freiburg University Medical Centre are looking for new strategies to treat lung diseases such as these. They have already discovered that ATP, which is the major energy currency molecule in the body, has an effect on the…

Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB - 24/04/2020

A rapid pyrogen test: the human immune system as model

Every year, around 11 million people die of sepsis (blood poisoning) caused by microorganisms or microbial residues, known as pyrogens, entering the bloodstream. The smallest amounts can trigger fever. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart have developed a pyrogen test that does not require a laboratory and is not tested on animals. It is expected to be placed on the market soon.