Healthcare industry

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.

Robot arm for greater accuracy - 08/06/2022

guidoo: robotic assistance for fast and precise biopsies

Needle-based procedures through the skin, such as biopsies of internal organs, not only require a great deal of skill and experience, but they also take time. Fraunhofer IPA Mannheim, together with BEC GmbH from Pfullingen, is developing a robotic surgical assistance system that supports the correct positioning and angulation of a needle with the help of a guide sleeve. This significantly speeds up the procedure while maintaining precision.

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.