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.

Metastatic breast cancer cells abuse macrophages, a type of immune cell, to promote the settlement of cancer metastases in the lungs. The reprogrammed macrophages stimulate blood vessel cells to secrete a cocktail of metastasis-promoting proteins that are part of the so-called metastatic niche.

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.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is funding a new Emmy Noether junior research group at the DKFZ for six years with a total of around 2 million euros. The scientists and doctors, who are part of the Clinical Cooperation Unit for Pediatric Leukemia at the KiTZ, are using a new procedure to investigate how cancer cells manipulate the formation of proteins to become resistant to cancer drugs.

ValidaTe enables characterization of efficacy and safety of T-cell drug candidates in days rather than months. The breakthrough speed and unprecedented density of data processed can give partner companies a competitive advantage. New high-throughput microarray technology for label-free characterization of drug candidate interactions can significantly accelerate development in immune-oncology.

Through the Endeavour Awards, the Mark Foundation supports research projects that bring together scientists from different disciplines to advance the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. One of the only four Endeavour Awards presented this year goes to a project coordinated by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).

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.

Biosensor for whole blood and exhaled breath analysis - 02/02/2022

Antibiotic detection from whole blood or exhaled breath possible

Incorrectly dosed antibiotics are not only dangerous for patients, but also often the cause of resistant strains of bacteria. Researchers at the University of Freiburg have developed a biosensor to determine the effective amount and thus enable personalised therapy. The biosensor works by rapidly determining small amounts of the substances directly from whole blood or exhaled breath.

Drugs consist of molecules developed in the drug laboratory that bind to their target, usually a protein, and thus exert their effect. The actual duration of binding of a drug molecule to its target protein varies depending on the drug. The lifetime of the drug-target complex can play a critical role in the efficacy of a drug, as a long residence time at the target can be crucial for the drug's action in some cases.

Dr. Stefan Schiller and Dr. Matthias Huber from the University of Freiburg’s livMatS Cluster of Excellence have succeeded in developing a muscle solely on the basis of natural proteins. The autonomous contractions of the material, which the researchers presented in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems, can be controlled with the help of pH and temperature changes.

Viral zoonoses - 24/01/2022

Development of inhibitors that help stop viral zoonoses

Emerging viral infections such as COVID-19 or Zika disease pose an increasing threat to humans. At the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology (IPMB) at Heidelberg University, Prof. Dr. Christian Klein's research group is developing inhibitors against already known viruses in the hope that these can also be used against new virus variants.

Genetic alterations that promote the development and spread of tumors are difficult to identify. This is especially true for mutations in the non-protein-coding regions of the genome, which include all important regulatory sequences. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now published an algorithm that detects cancer drivers in both the protein-coding and non-coding regions of the genome.

Gene regulation as a starting point for cancer therapies - 02/12/2021

New investigation method for deciphering complex epigenetic networks

The development and maintenance of uncontrolled cell division in tumours is often due to the unbalanced, complex interplay of regulatory epigenetic networks. Researchers at the Institute of Biochemistry and Technical Biochemistry in Stuttgart have developed a new screening system to identify essential components that can serve as targets for anticancer drugs.

Cluster of the future - 25/11/2021

nanodiagBW: using nanopores to create completely new diagnostic possibilities

Modern medicine has a wide range of molecular diagnostics at hand. In the next decade, this will increasingly be supplemented by prognostic methods. The BMBF Cluster of the Future finalist, nanodiag BW, is developing prognostic methods to identify epigenetic factors for diseases through a new type of bioanalytics – single molecule analysis in nanopores – which would make it possible to take personalised prevention approaches.

After a highly competitive process Ulm University has been awarded its fifth Collaborative Research Centre (CRC). The new CRC 1506 ‘Aging at Interfaces’ addresses one of the most urgent medical challenges of our time: the aging of the human body and the diseases and constraints that are frequently associated with the aging process.

At the University Hospital Tübingen, clinical evaluation of an in-house developed vaccine (CoVac-1) against SARS-CoV-2 was started in November 2020 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Juliane Walz in the CCU Translational Immunology of the Medical Clinic (Medical Director Prof. Dr. Helmut Salih). Now the results of the Phase I study are available and demonstrate a potent activation of the T-cell response against the coronavirus.

Treatment resistance is a central problem in the treatment of cancer. Bone and soft tissue tumors – known as sarcomas – in adolescents and young adults often stop responding to treatment too. This is because cancer cells develop a large number of new characteristics as the disease progresses and often become resistant to drugs that were originally effective.

Doctors and scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and from Heidelberg University's Medical Faculty Mannheim have successfully tested a neoantigen-specific transgenic immune cell therapy for malignant brain tumors for the first time using an experimental model in mice.

Nanoparticles are omnipresent in our environment: Viruses in ambient air, proteins in the body, as building blocks of new materials for electronics, or in surface coatings. Visualizing these smallest particles is a problem: They are so small that they can hardly be seen under an optical microscope.

The mechanisms by which the body measures temperature and regulates its own body heat are vital, but still poorly understood. The discovery of the first heat sensor on nerve cells in the skin, for which the U.S. molecular biologist David Julius received this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine, was therefore pioneering.

Optimised peptides against infections and cancer - 07/10/2021

New bioactive ingredients from the peptidome treasure chest

Peptides are increasingly coming into scientific focus for application in diagnostics and therapy. The human body is full of these protein fragments, but only a fraction have been characterised. So there is enormous potential for discovering new biologically active substances that can help in the fight against bacteria, viruses and cancer. A collaborative research centre at Ulm University Hospital is on the trail of these promising fragments.

A team of engineers and biotechnologists at the University of Freiburg has for the first time shown in mammals that the concentration of antibiotics in the body can be determined using breath samples. The breath measurements also corresponded to the antibiotic concentrations in the blood. The team’s biosensor – a multiplex chip – will in future enable personalized dosing of medicines against infectious diseases on-site.

Scientists use super-resolution microscopy to study previously undiscovered cellular worlds, revealing nanometer-scale details inside cells. This method revolutionized light microscopy and earned its inventors the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In an international collaboration, AI researchers from Tübingen have now developed an algorithm that significantly accelerates this technology.

On the one hand, blood vessels supply tumors with nutrients and, on the other, enable cancer cells to spread throughout the body. The settlement of circulating tumor cells in a distant organ is promoted by factors whose production is induced by the primary tumor itself. Scientists have now identified a new growth factor produced by blood vessels that enables tumor cells to metastatically colonize organs.