Healthcare industry

Article - 02/12/2008

Cancer cells do not like rocket salad

Isothiocyanates which are substances found in vegetables such as rocket kohlrabi or mustard promote good health. Dr. Evelyn Lamy and her team at the Freiburg University Hospital found out that isothiocyanates lead to considerably fewer DNA strand breaks.

Article - 29/11/2008

The worm in humans

Caenorhabditis elegans has a lifespan of 20 days. The worm is as small as a comma and consists of only 959 cells. Caenorhabditis elegans is very different from Homo sapiens who might at least in Germany live for as long as 79 years or more. Nevertheless the tiny worm is the most important model organism for researchers into ageing who use it to study the development of age-related diseases and the ageing process itself.

Prof. Dr. Lenhard Rudolph a well-known stem cell researcher at Ulm University is investigating the relationships between telomeres stem cell ageing and diseases. In the following interview with Walter Pytlik BioRegion Ulm Rudolph gives insights into state-of-the-art ageing research and its potential applications.

Karin Scharffetter-Kochanek dermatologist and head of the Department of Dermatology and Allergology at the University Hospital of Ulm has spent a long time investigating skin ageing. Her specific focus on skin has not however restricted her understanding of ageing to barely deterministic or mechanistic details. Quite the opposite is true.

Professor Giovanni Galizia from Constance is investigating the processing of odour cues. Together with other scientists Galizia has initiated a DFG research priority on olfactory processing in humans and animals.

Dossier - 20/11/2008

Anti-Ageing is still a far-off dream

Is it possible to halt the ageing process? This question was first raised in the 1980s when researchers succeeded in delaying the ageing process in threadworms by modifying a specific gene. Nowadays hundreds of gene mutations are known to prolong the lifespan of yeast fruit flies and mice. Will the human dream of eternal youth eventually become reality? The truth is probably not.

Karen Grave-Hermann and Dr. Robert Hermann founded cr.applications in 2003. The two specialists who have wide-ranging experience in drug development talked to Michael Statnik about current trends in their field and about the development of the German biotech sector.

The Europe-wide MARK-AGE project involving scientists from 14 countries commenced on the 1st April 2008. Scientists have joined forces to investigate the factors involved in ageing. They are using standardised questionnaires and analysing data acquired from physical and biochemical examinations of the blood and urine from 3700 volunteers. The team of experts includes the medical expert Professor Alexander Bürkle and the mathematician Prof.…

Prof. Johannes Schropp and Gilbert Koch from the University of Constance are developing mathematical models for the pharmaceutical company Nycomed. These models examine the relationship between the concentration and the effect of administered drugs.

Nycomed has announced encouraging results from a preliminary analysis of four Phase III trials of Daxas roflumilast in the treatment of symptomatic COPD. The application for marketing authorisation of the drug is expected for 2009.

Hartmut Geiger a biochemist and stem cell researcher at Ulm University Hospital is using genetic methods to investigate the molecular basis of the physiological ageing of haematopoietic stem cells. After having spent a period in Cincinnati Geiger is currently head of the clinical research group Molecular and cellular ageing from the mechanisms of action to clinical perspectives.

At a meeting at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin an international expert committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agreed on a new alternative test method involving no animal experiments to determine the irritant properties of foreign substances on the skin.

Press release - 01/11/2008

Boris Mizaikoff and Christine Kranz – on the way to systems analytics

The two chemists Boris Mizaikoff and Christine Kranz have a great deal in common they are married to each other they have children together and they work at the same university on projects that combine technologies and methods to create multifunctional analytical platforms at the Department of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry at Ulm University.

The Ludwig Heilmeyer Tumour Centre Comprehensive Cancer Centre Freiburg has received a grant from the Pfizer Foundation USA for an innovative anti-smoking cure programme developed as part of the CCCFs cancer prevention strategy.

Prof. Dr. Michael Reth is active in the field of immunology and signalling. He is an experienced scientist who is well aware of the difficulty and the cumbersome nature of deciphering signals and signalling pathways. The Freiburg bioss excellence cluster - the Centre of Biological Signalling Studies - is Reths brainchild. Karin Bundschuh from BioRegio Freiburg spoke with the scientist who works at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and the…

During his school days Boppr used to spend his summer holidays at the Max Planck Institute of Behavioural Physiology in Seewiesen in southern Germany. Later on as a student at the MPI he developed an interest in the love life of butterflies. Prof. Dr. Michael Boppr a chemo-ecologist at the University of Freiburg is still fascinated by organismic biology but he is convinced that this discipline is treated as very much the poor cousin to other…

The European Research Council is to fund a project at the University Hospital of Freiburg on the development of ultra fast magnetic resonance imaging for applications in the fields of neurology the neurosciences and oncology.

For three days from 9 to 11 October more than 300 scientists from over 20 countries met at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart to discuss the current state of research the latest product developments and therapies in regenerative medicine and stem cell research.

Boehringer Ingelheim has three oral compounds for the treatment of diabetes type II in phase II and III of clinical development. The most advanced compound a DPP-4 inhibitor is in the final clinical phase.

Press release - 15/10/2008

Hans-Jürgen Apell - insights into active ion transport

Biophysicist Prof. Hans-Jürgen Apell carries out basic research at the University of Constance in order to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in the transport of ions through membranes and to come up with important findings for new therapeutic concepts. His major field of research focuses on structure-function relationships of P-type ATPases enzymes which cleave ATP adenosine triphosphate and transport ions thereby resulting in muscle…

Article - 13/10/2008

Eurobarometer: animal cloning for food production

A Flash Eurobarometer study reveals that European citizens have a generally negative perception of animal cloning for food production. 81 per cent feels that the long term effects of animal cloning are unknown.

The supervisory board of the Landesstiftung foundation has approved a total of 24.39 million euros in research funding including 5 million for strategic research and 0.5 million euros for a study on strategic research.

Genedata AG has developed a modular software system known as Genedata Screener that is tailored to screening and hit-to-lead applications. Dr. Timo Wittenberg who works at the companys site in Constance Germany told us about the advantages of the software for identifying high-potential leads.

Harald zur Hausen the long-time chairman and scientific director of the German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ a member of the Helmholtz Society discovered that human papillomaviruses HPV lead to cervical cancer. His discovery led to the development of a vaccine for cervical cancer which is the third most frequent type of cancer in women.

Prof. Karin Scharffetter-Kochanek has recently become a member of the renowned Leopoldina Academy of Sciences. In her research the skin has become a model system that serves as the basis for a trans-organ systemic approach looking at the underlying mechanisms and the complex interactions with other organs.