DZNE researchers discover link between the protein medin and Alzheimer's disease. The protein medin is deposited in the blood vessels of the brains of Alzheimer's patients along with the protein amyloid-β. DZNE Researchers have discovered this so-called co-aggregation. They have now published their observation in the renowned journal Nature.

MEDICA and COMPAMED continue to develop in an extremely vital manner. The world's leading medical trade fair and the international No. 1 for the medical technology supply sector once again impressively underscored their positive results from the previous year with strong numbers – despite continuing adverse conditions. A significant increase in bookings on the part of the exhibiting companies was followed after four days by a marked increase…

Using animal-free methods to assess the hazard potential of chemicals to the nervous system of unborn children? An international research team including toxicologists from Konstanz and Düsseldorf has developed a testing battery based on human cells that has the potential to replace traditional methods for assessing developmental neurotoxicity.

Climate protection and sustainability in hospitals - 09/11/2022

Sustainable activities in the healthcare sector

The healthcare sector is not only facing major challenges in dealing with the consequences of climate change on human health, but it also needs to make a concrete contribution to reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions. Analyses show there are many opportunities to make medical care more sustainable, especially in hospitals’ daily routines. This is where the Heidelberg University Hospital and the viamedica foundation from Freiburg come in.

Climate protection and sustainability in hospitals - 09/11/2022

Sustainable activities in the healthcare sector

The healthcare sector is not only facing major challenges in dealing with the consequences of climate change on human health, but it also needs to make a concrete contribution to reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions. Analyses show there are many opportunities to make medical care more sustainable, especially in hospitals’ daily routines. This is where the Heidelberg University Hospital and the viamedica foundation from Freiburg come in.

Climate protection and sustainability in hospitals - 09/11/2022

Sustainable activities in the healthcare sector

The healthcare sector is not only facing major challenges in dealing with the consequences of climate change on human health, but it also needs to make a concrete contribution to reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions. Analyses show there are many opportunities to make medical care more sustainable, especially in hospitals’ daily routines. This is where the Heidelberg University Hospital and the viamedica foundation from Freiburg come in.

Researchers have created a tool that maps how breast cancer grows in previously unseen detail, and highlights how the cells around the tumour may be the key to controlling the spread of disease. The new technology can trace which populations of breast cancer cells are responsible for the spread of the disease, and for the first time highlights how the location of cancer cells could be as important as mutations in tumor growth The new study is…

The health of nerve cells is closely linked to the auxiliary cells that surround them, the so-called glial cells. It still remains largely unknown what role glial cells play in age-related diseases.

During the growth and development of living organisms, different types of cells must come into contact with each other in order to form tissues and organs together. A small team working with Prof. Dr. Anne Classen of the Excellence Cluster CIBSS of the University of Freiburg has discovered that complex changes in form, or morphogenesis, during development are driven exclusively via the affinity of cells to each other.

Toxicologists from the University of Konstanz have found that the protein p53 continuously protects our cells from tumorigenesis by coordinating important metabolic processes that stabilize their genomes.

Heidelberg University scientists are to receive three ERC Synergy Grants – three highly endowed grants of the European Research Council – for pioneering research projects by several teams working in collaboration.

Why do metastases often only appear after the original tumor has been surgically removed? Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) and the Mannheim Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University have now published an explanation for this phenomenon. They were able to identify a messenger substance of the cancer cells that locally promotes the growth of the primary tumor.

Researchers of the University of Freiburg have discovered a previously unknown function of septins in defending cells against dangerous hospital pathogens.

University of Tübingen, a leading member of Cyber Valley, Europe’s largest Artificial Intelligence (AI) research consortium and Boehringer Ingelheim launch an AI and data science fellowship program for top talents from around the world. Three to five fellowships will be awarded per year for up to three years with a target of nine to fifteen fellows in the program after five years.

Apogenix, a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation immunotherapeutics, announced today that asunercept showed statistically significant benefits for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the ASUNCTIS trial. The open-label multi-center phase II trial investigated efficacy and safety of asunercept in 435 patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease.

Researchers from Freiburg and Harvard publish the three-dimensional structure of the B cell antigen receptor, shedding new light on its composition.

In the brain of adult mammals neural stem cells ensure that new nerve cells, i.e. neurons, are constantly formed. This process, known as adult neurogenesis, helps mice maintain their sense of smell. A research team led by Dr Francesca Ciccolini at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN) of Heidelberg University recently discovered a second stem cell population in the mouse brain.

Although just cute little creatures at first glance, the microscopic geckos and octopuses fabricated by 3D laser printing in the molecular engineering labs at Heidelberg University could open up new opportunities in fields such as microrobotics or biomedicine. The printed microstructures are made from novel materials – known as smart polymers – whose size and mechanical properties can be tuned on demand and with high precision.

Screening trials for the early detection of rare diseases often fail due to insufficient predictive power of the results. For the rare HPV-related cancer of the pharynx, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) now relied on the combined detection of antibodies against two different viral proteins in a proof-of concept trial.

With its "Proof of Concept" grants, the European Research Council ERC supports scientists in further developing the commercial potential of their research results. Nina Papavasiliou from the DKFZ is now receiving the prestigious grant for the second time: she wants to advance the development of a "molecular delivery service" that ensures that therapeutic genes reach the right address in the body in a targeted manner.

Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with an estimated 1.4 million deaths and ten million people infected annually. Resistant and multidrug-resistant (MDR) variants of the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis pose a major threat to tuberculosis control and global health.

Changes known as epigenetic modifications play an important role in cancer development, among other things. Being able to analyze them quickly and reliably could, for example, contribute significantly to the further development of personalized therapy.

University of Tübingen team discovers how malformations of the blood vessels can occur in mice – yielding information with possible ramifications for retinal disease.

A centre for model-based artificial intelligence has been set up at Heidelberg University to link mathematical modelling methods with information processing in neuronal networks. The Carl Zeiss Foundation (CZS) is funding the CZS Heidelberg Center for Model-Based AI with five million euros over a period of six years.

Organ-on-chip for the analysis of drug effects - 20/07/2022

New 3D cell platform allows continuous metabolic monitoring

Organ-on-chips systems are systems containing miniature tissues grown inside mircrofluidic chips. By integrating microsensors, researchers at the IMTEK Freiburg, together with the RWTH Aachen University Hospital, created a novel variant that allows the measurement of metabolic activity directly on site and in real time. This enables the rapid and detailed analysis of drug effects outside an organism.

Biotech in outer space - 06/07/2022

yuri, a space start-up: weightlessness for commercial research

Growing cells without the effect of gravity could revolutionise drug development. A start-up called yuri on Lake Constance enables made-to-measure experiments on the ISS for stem cells, artificial organs, surfaces and materials. On board the next mission are some mini-cell labs from Berlin's Charité and Goethe University Frankfurt.

Does COVID-19 vaccination increase the risk of cancer patients undergoing therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors to suffer a dangerous immune complication known as a "cytokine release syndrome"? A team of Heidelberg physicians and scientists has now shown in a clinical study: Increased serum levels of the characteristic cytokines occur frequently in cancer patients, but clinically relevant cases of the dreaded syndrome were not…

Assay to support the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases - 22/06/2022

Tracking down pathogenic immune complexes

Soluble complexes of antibodies and their target structures circulating in the blood can trigger serious systemic inflammations. Dr. Philipp Kolb and Haizhang Chen from the Institute of Virology at the Freiburg University Medical Centre have developed a sensitive, cell-based test system for detecting these immune complexes. The system can be used to diagnose systemic autoimmune diseases, and also severe cases of COVID-19.

Scientists from the 2. Physics Institute at the University of Stuttgart and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research were now able to take the next step towards synthetic cells: They introduced functional DNA-based cytoskeletons into cell-sized compartments and showed functionality. The results were recently published in Nature Chemistry.

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases are associated with inflammatory processes in the brain. German researchers have succeeded in identifying a group of proteins in the liquor that could provide information about such inflammatory processes. As so-called biomarkers, the proteins could help to better understand disease processes in the future and to test the effect of potential drugs against brain inflammation.

The nuclease Cas13b associated with the CRISPR gene scissors, which is an enzyme that degrades nucleic acids, has the potential to be used in the future in hereditary diseases to switch off unwanted genes. In the fight against infections, this nuclease is also being researched as an antiviral agent, as Cas13b can specifically intervene in the genetic material of viruses and render them harmless.

Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg, together with Freiburg’s Mayor Martin Horn, gives the go-ahead for the construction project on the Georges-Köhler-Allee.

Bakteriocins - 24/05/2022

New antibiotic alternatives from soil bacteria

Bacteria are not the greatest of friends among themselves: many release antimicrobial substances into their environment in order to gain an advantage in their ecological niche. Researchers at the University of Ulm are making use of such bacteriocins by creating a genetically modified soil bacterium that can be used as a biotechnological platform organism to produce alternatives to antibiotics in pure form and in large quantities. The fact this…

Microrobots have the potential to revolutionize medicine. Researchers at the Max Planck ETH Centre for Learning Systems have now developed an imaging technique that for the first time recognises cell-sized microrobots individually and at high resolution in a living organism. This is an important step towards precise control of the robots and their clinical translation.

While broad-spectrum antibiotics can offer protection against a wide variety of bacteria, there are currently no analogous clinically available broad-spectrum antiviral agents that can act on several different viruses. An international research team has now shown that polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), a negatively charged polymer, has the potential to be used in the prevention of viral infections – not only in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 and cold…

Product testing under real conditions - 11/05/2022

INSPIRE Living Lab: a bridge between industry and the clinic

Coming up with innovative ideas and products in the medical care area is highly relevant not only for the further development of Baden-Württemberg as a health region, but also for improving healthcare itself. However, bridging the gap between industry and the clinic often proves difficult. To drive this process forward, the INSPIRE Living Lab was opened at the University Medical Centre Mannheim in 2021.

Certain childhood tumors have an extreme need for amino acids. Scientists at the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the University of Heidelberg, and HI-STEM* gGmbH have now discovered the molecular mechanisms underlying this and how the cancer cells could be turned off.

Peptide-based COVID-19 vaccine - 21/04/2022

CoVac-1: T-cell activator against COVID-19

Current vaccines against COVID-19 aim at forming neutralising antibodies that prevent the virus from penetrating the host cells. Since people with impaired B-cell immune responses – which can also occur in cancer or autoimmune diseases – are not able to do this, researchers at the University of Tübingen have developed the peptide-based T-cell activator CoVac-1, which promises broad and long-term immunity.

Spindiag GmbH, together with the University of Freiburg and the Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft für angewandte Forschung e.V., was awarded the Technology Transfer Prize 2020 from the German Physical Society (DPG) on April 09, 2022 for the development of the PCR-based rapid test system Rhonda.

COVIC-19 clinical trial - 07/04/2022

Convalescent plasma for COVID-19 therapy: clinical trial should bring clarity

Does it help to treat COVID-19 sufferers with antibodies from people who have recovered from the disease? It seems an obvious idea and has been tested thousands of times. However, there is not yet enough evidence to prove the clinical efficacy of treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma. The transfusion physician Prof. Dr. Hubert Schrezenmeier from Ulm is planning to carry out a follow-up clinical trial to find the missing evidence.

On March 23, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to the first targeted radioligand therapy against metastatic prostate cancer based on a joint patent of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University of Heidelberg. The agent significantly improves the chances of survival for those affected.

Junior Professor Dr Daniela Duarte Campos has been awarded a substantial grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). She and her junior research group are investigating bioprinting for tissue and organ engineering at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University and at the “3D Matter Made to Order” Cluster of Excellence, a collaboration between Ruperto Carola and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Laboratory studies of lung tissue usually require the removal of large amounts of human or animal tissue. Now scientists from the University of Freiburg’s Faculty of Medicine have succeeded in collaboration with American researchers in generating tiny quantities of lung tissue, so-called organoids, from just a few body cells in the lab.

SolidCAR-T project - 15/03/2022

Modular ‘mini-factories’ for decentralised production of CAR T cells

Novel CAR T-cell therapies have proved to be promising therapeutic options for the treatment of acute leukaemias and lymphomas. Researchers from the Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart, the University Hospital Tübingen and the NMI in Reutlingen have joined forces in the SolidCAR-T project that aims to generate CAR T cells to combat solid tumours and produce these cells directly on site in the clinic using automated 'mini-factories'.

Inspiration, innovation, networking are the name of the game on April 12, 2022, when the trinational event “Innovation Day Upper Rhine” (IDUR) takes place at the Palais Universitaire on the University of Strasbourg campus. Twelve universities in the Upper Rhine region, including the University of Freiburg and 100 partner companies of the EU funded project “Knowledge Transfer Upper Rhine” (KTUR), invite to a day of exchange and meeting.

In order to develop approaches for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's dementia in clinical trials, it would be helpful to be able to identify people with a particularly high risk of developing the disease. But which biomarkers can indicate an increased likelihood of disease early on in symptom-free people who actually develop Alzheimer's later?

Elastin as artificial muscle material - 02/03/2022

Artificial muscle from proteins for diverse future applications

As far as diversity and complexity are concerned, proteins are nature's smallest marvels. Biotechnologists have already used natural proteins as a basis for the development, bespoke design and production of artificial systems. This is what the livMatS cluster of excellence at the University of Freiburg has been doing. Researchers in the cluster have successfully produced an artificial muscle from elastin that functions autonomously.

The RNA Printer® is CureVac’s integrated and automated manufacturing solution for RNA vaccines and therapeutics. CureVac RNA Printer GmbH to provide dedicated infrastructure to accelerate development and broaden application range of The RNA Printer®. Dr. Markus Bergmann appointed as General Manager for CureVac RNA Printer GmbH.

In the field of optogenetics, scientists investigate the activity of neurons in the brain using light. A team led by Prof. Dr. Ilka Diester and Dr. David Eriksson from the Optophysiology Laboratory at the University of Freiburg has developed a new method to simultaneously conduct laminar recordings, multifiber stimulations, 3D optogenetic stimulation, connectivity inference, and behavioral quantification on brains.

Macrophages interacting with cytomegaloviruses - 22/02/2022

Cytomegaloviruses subvert macrophage identity

Cytomegaloviruses are basically harmless. However, if they occur along with other pathogens, they can trigger serious diseases. They can manipulate our immune system and encourage resident defence cells to migrate. Researchers at the Centre for Chronic Immunodeficiency (CCI) at the Freiburg University Medical Centre have discovered which mechanisms underlie the behavioural changes in macrophages that make it easier for other pathogens to attack.