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.

Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, and they contain their own genetic material and RNA molecules. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now discovered that certain modifications in mitochondrial RNA boost the invasive spread of cancer cells by supporting protein synthesis in mitochondria.

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.