Healthcare industry

Article - 15/03/2010

Borna disease virus and cell death in the brain

A research group led by Prof. Dr. Bernd Heimrich at the University of Freiburg is investigating how the Borna disease virus can alter characteristic neuronal circuits and destroy the hippocampal nerve cells. The scientists have developed an extremely practical petri dish test system. Their results show which cell types sustain the most damage following infection and also give indications as to how apoptosis cell death can be prevented.

Article - 15/03/2010

Innovative navigation system enables gene shuttles to reach their destination

If everything goes to plan the Department of Gene Therapy at the University of Ulm will soon lose a work group to industry. Florian Kreppels team plans to turn a particular technology into hard cash using a method that can do something other gene shuttles are unable to do namely transport their freight to a specific destination.

Article - 15/03/2010

The first active immunisations against cancer

The first anti-cancer vaccines were developed to prevent women from becoming infected with papillomaviruses and to protect them against cervical cancer. The development of vaccines can be traced back to the work of Nobel Laureate Harald zur Hausen and his colleagues at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. But more development is required in the field of anti-cancer vaccines and this is why researchers worldwide are working on vaccines…

Press release - 23/12/2009

The spread of HIV: optimal adaptation to the human host

A new study led by the virologist and Leibniz Award winner Frank Kirchhoff from Ulm might be about to provide an explanation as to why only one of several independent transmissions of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) from chimpanzees to humans led to the global AIDS pandemic. The researchers now hope that these new findings will contribute to the search for new strategies to prevent the further spread of AIDS viruses.

Press release - 08/12/2009

Vaccination of honeybees against the Varroa mite is possible

For the first time ever, honeybees were orally ‚vaccinated’ with a genetically engineered product that was later detected in the bloodsucking Varroa mite. This product is a DNA-plasmid that is normally used for man, horses, swine and also for fish. The inventor of this innovative DNA-vaccination system for bees is Matthias Giese, PhD, who launches his own Institute for Molecular Vaccines (IMV) in Heidelberg/Germany starting in 2010.

Press release - 04/12/2009

Papillomavirus oncogene silences innate immune response

Human papillomavirus type 16, the most frequent cause of cervical cancer, is able to silence a signalling molecule in the host cells that is needed for immune responses to occur. If the body is unable to defend itself against intruders, the viruses can successfully invade the cells of the cervical mucosa. Researchers from the German Cancer Research Centre have discovered that the viral E6 oncogene is responsible for this mechanism.

Press release - 17/11/2009

iGEM team Freiburg: a standing order for gold medals

The Bioware team from Freiburg, an important part of the bioss cluster of excellence, has once again achieved resounding success: one gold medal and two special prizes at the iGEM competition (international Genetically Engineered Machine), the largest event for up-and-coming scientists focusing on synthetic biology. It was the turn of the research group heads, junior professor Dr. Kristian Müller and Dr. Katja Arndt, to participate in the…

Press release - 16/11/2009

No-Entry Zones for AIDS Virus

The AIDS virus (HIV) inserts its genetic material into the genome of the infected cell. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now shown for the first time that the virus almost entirely spares particular sites in the human genetic material in this process. This finding may be useful for developing new, specific AIDS drugs.

Press release - 18/09/2009

How HIV disables immune cells

In order to be able to ward off disease pathogens, immune cells must be mobile and able to establish contact with each other. Professor Dr. Oliver Fackler’s group of researchers in the Department of Virology of the Institute of Hygiene at the University of Heidelberg has discovered a mechanism in an animal model revealing how HI viruses cripple immune cells: The mobility of cells is inhibited by the protein Nef. The study, which was published in…

The INTERREG programme of the European Union will provide funding for a liver disease research project conducted by the Department of Internal Medicine II at the Freiburg University Medical Centre. The “Hepato-Regio-Net” will receive a total of one million euro in funding for a period of three years. Prof. Dr. Robert Thimme, executive senior physician in the Department of Medicine, will serve as the project’s spokesperson and Dr. Richard Fischer,…

Article - 30/07/2009

Keeping as many valuable attachments as possible

The goal of many projects focusing on the purification of recombinant proteins is to rapidly and effectively remove substances and side products that would compromise the quality and quantity of biopharmaceutical compounds. A consortium of industrial and scientific partners is currently focusing on a different step in the biopharmaceutical production process: the goal is to keep as many as possible of the drugs’ ‘attachments’. The project focuses…

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding for a new research project at the Universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg. The researchers are working on improving our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to chronic virus infections: how do hepatitis viruses manage to evade immunological defence reactions and survive in the organism without damaging the organism?

Article - 09/07/2009

Four Nobel Prizes for a chicken virus

The Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) was the starting point of the discovery that cancer can be brought on by infections. The enzyme “reverse transcriptase”, which led to a rethinking and technological revolution in the field of molecular biology, was discovered in this retrovirus along with oncogenes that led to a completely new concept of cancer development in molecular genetics and eventually to the development of a new generation of cancer…

Article - 02/07/2009

A virus that hides while it waits for an opportunity to replicate

Thomas Mertens, Medical Director of the Institute of Virology in Ulm, has a strong scientific and clinical interest in the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a big virus with a big impact which, despite its size, is overshadowed by known viruses such as the HI virus that is the object of research for Mertens’ colleagues. HCMV research is a challenging area where quick successes are rare.

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University Clinic Heidelberg, Germany, have produced a three-dimensional reconstruction of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which shows the structure of the immature form of the virus at unprecedented detail. Immature HIV is a precursor of the infectious virus, which can cause AIDS. The study, published in the 22-26 June online edition of PNAS, describes how the protein…

Dossier - 25/06/2009

DNA and RNA replication

The replication of the genome is essential for the continuity of life. The molecular mechanism is very similar in all groups of organisms. Although the basics of replication are already well understood, researchers are still focusing on questions relating to DNA replication. These questions not only deal with the understanding of a basic biological process, but also with related medical aspects.

Article - 23/06/2009

Hepatitis B and the Münchhausen enzyme

Virologists in Prof. Dr. Michael Nassals group at the University Medical Centre in Freiburg are investigating the molecular mechanisms used by the hepatitis B virus to reproduce. The researchers work might in future be able to help the three to four hundred million people worldwide who suffer from chronic hepatitis B infections.

Press release - 10/06/2009

New tests for and new data about the new influenza type

In Germany, test methods that enable the identification of an infection caused by the new influenza A/H1N1 virus, even after the symptoms have subsided or disappeared completely, have become available for the first time. The National Influenza Reference Centre (NRZ) at the Robert Koch Institute has developed two serological tests based on the detection of antibodies in the blood serum. The antibodies are produced about 2 weeks after onset of…

Press release - 30/04/2009

In the tubular system of human cells

Scientists from the Hygiene Institute at the Heidelberg University Hospital have succeeded for the first time ever in showing the three-dimensional architecture of the dengue virus replication and assembly sites in human cells. Their paper was recently published in the renowned journal “Cell Host & Microbes”.

Press release - 08/01/2009

ILM – Optical analytics

In collaboration with the company Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen GmbH and the Institute of Virology at the University of Ulm, the ILM is developing an innovative detection system for the early diagnosis of influenza virus infections in pharyngeal secretions.

Staying healthy as you get older that is probably what many people would wish for. As part of the European research network LifeSpan 130 scientists are now looking into how to make this wish come true. Prof. Dr. Graham Pawelec from the University Hospital of Tübingen UKT is one of the 130 scientists and his principal focus is immunological ageing processes.

Press release - 04/12/2008

Leibniz Awards for two Ulm University professors

Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchhoff Institute of Virology and Prof. Dr. Karl Lenhard Rudolph Institute of Molecular Medicine from the University of Ulm have received two of the German Research Foundations eleven Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme awards.

Researchers at Heidelberg University Hospital discover a new genetic disease in which a mutation in a transport protein gene makes bile toxic and triggers severe cirrhosis of the liver. The research has been published in the journal Hepatology.

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.

The Dr. Ernst Wiethoff Award 2008 for innovative clinical research worth 25000 euros was presented to Jan Münch from the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital of Ulm. Münch discovered a new protein that blocks the HI virus.