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

Today, genome editing is almost as easy as programming software. However, the generation of viral vectors as initial material is still associated with many expensive and error-prone handling procedures. Viruses are generated via complex biological processes that have to be optimised virus-specifically in order to produce high-quality therapeutics. A new method is needed that simplifies and optimises these processes.

RHEACELL GmbH - 28/07/2022

Innovative stem cell therapy for chronic wounds

Non-healing, chronically inflamed wounds can be very painful and carry the risk of serious infections. The Heidelberg company RHEACELL has developed a unique drug based on ABCB5-positive mesenchymal stem cells that helps reprogramme the relevant immune cells and promote healing.

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.

AaviGen GmbH: Hope for heart failure - 14/07/2022

Gene therapy for weakened hearts

Treating a weak heart – for example after a heart attack – at the GP’s surgery with a single intravenous injection, without causing serious side effects: what sounds almost too good to be true is actually already under development. The Heidelberg-based biotech company AaviGen is working on a platform technology based on adeno-associated viruses that can help introduce therapeutic genes in a highly specific way into diseased heart muscle cells.

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.

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…

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.