news 2017
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Life Sciences - Health - 26.05.2017
Life Sciences - Health - 16.05.2017 
Bacteria harness the lotus effect to protect themselves
Research news Dental plaque and the viscous brown slime in drainpipes are two familiar examples of bacterial biofilms. Removing such bacterial depositions from surfaces is often very difficult, in part because they are extremely water-repellent. A team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now been able to show how such biofilms adapt their surface texture to repel water - similar to leaves.
Continuing Education - Life Sciences - 27.04.2017 
How Plants Form Their Sugar Transport Routes
In experiments on transport tissues in plants, researchers from Heidelberg University were able to identify factors of crucial importance for the formation of the plant tissue known as phloem. According to Thomas Greb of the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), these factors differ from all previously known factors that trigger the specification of cells.
Health - Life Sciences - 13.04.2017 
Zinc supply affects cardiac health
Research news In addition to essential metabolic functions, the level of zinc in the body also affects the heart muscle. When oxidative stress occurs, it may be due to a shortage of zinc, which can be determined by examining the heart muscle. A study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows the relationship between the total amount of zinc in the body and cardiac function.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 07.04.2017 
Ed Hurt Receives ERC Advanced Grant
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded biochemist Ed Hurt a highly endowed ERC Advanced Grant for outstanding research leaders in Europe. The researchers in Prof. Hurt's team want to study the largely unexplored processes that take place in the initial phase of the manufacture of these cellular protein factories.
Life Sciences - Mechanical Engineering - 30.03.2017 
Motor Neurons Tell Blood Vessels Where To Go
Heidelberg Neuroscientists have identified a critical regulator for blood vessel growth in the developing embryonic spinal cord. The research group under the direction of Dr Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar of the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center discovered that special nerve cells known as motor neurons control this process.
Life Sciences - Health - 27.03.2017 
Proteomics helps to understand the influence of genetic variations
Research news How does type 2 diabetes develop? A team of researchers headed by the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich has come closer to finding an answer to this problem. The team examined the functional effects of exemplary genetic variations relevant for type 2 diabetes.
Health - Life Sciences - 23.03.2017 
Vanishing capillaries
Research news Diabetics have a significantly higher risk of suffering a heart attack. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now identified one of the causes: Diabetes is associated with the loss of small blood vessels around the heart. This in turn affects the entire cardiac muscle.
Health - Life Sciences - 22.03.2017 
"Jumping gene" uncovers genetic networks
Research news Mutations in tumor suppressor genes mean that they can no longer keep tumors from growing. In developing cancer, often several mutations come into play. Using "jumping genes," scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) together with teams from Great Britain and Spain have identified a number of genes that can influence the growth of prostate and breast tumors.
Life Sciences - Environment - 16.03.2017 
Outwitting climate change with a plant ’dimmer’?
Research news Plants possess molecular mechanisms that prevent them from blooming in winter. Once the cold of win-ter has passed, they are deactivated. However, if it is still too cold in spring, plants adapt their blooming behavior accordingly. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered genetic changes for this adaptive behavior.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 15.03.2017 
Bernd Bukau Receives ERC Advanced Grant
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a highly endowed grant - an ERC Advanced Grant for leading researchers in Europe - to Heidelberg molecular biologist Bernd Bukau. The five-year endowment will fund a research project in which the scientists will study the maturation of proteins in cells.
Life Sciences - Computer Science - 07.03.2017 
Progress Towards a Circuit Diagram of the Brain
Precise knowledge of the connections in the brain - the links between all the nerve cells - is a prerequisite for better understanding this most complex of organs. Researchers from Heidelberg University have now developed a new algorithm - a computational procedure - that can extract this connectivity pattern with far greater precision than previously possible from microscopic images of the brain.
Life Sciences - Health - 05.03.2017 
Conflict or coexistence
Competition within mixed bacterial populations can give rise to complex growth dynamics. LMU researchers are probing the interplay between differential growth rates and stochastic factors in determining the composition of such populations. How do bacteria react to fluctuations in their environment? How do they respond to abiotic stresses or to competition with other microbes' And in mixed populations, what factors determine which of the competing species or strains win out in the end? These questions are not easy to answer, for bacterial communities represent complex and dynamic ecosystems.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 24.02.2017 
In the molecular bench vise
Research news The genome molecule contains the blueprint for life. The manner in which the blueprint is packed into the cell determines which genes are active and which are set to inactive. Disturbing this structure can result in illnesses such as cancer. Munich scientists have now succeeded in using molecular "tweezers" made from DNA to measure interactions at the first packaging level of the genome.
Life Sciences - Health - 22.02.2017
Health - Life Sciences - 21.02.2017 
Epilepsy gene identified in dogs
Many breeds of dogs are prone to epileptic seizures. Veterinary neurologists and geneticists have now localized the mutation responsible for a specific form of epilepsy in Rhodesian ridgebacks. Rhodesian ridgebacks were originally bred for use in lion hunts, which explains why these these dogs are strongly built and robust.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 16.02.2017 
Hairpins help each other out
The evolution of cells and organisms is thought to have been preceded by a phase in which informational molecules like DNA could be replicated selectively. New work shows that hairpin structures make particularly effective DNA replicators. In the metabolism of all living organisms there is a clear division of labor: Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) carry the information for the synthesis of proteins, and proteins provide the structural and executive functions required by cells, such as the controlled and specific catalysis of chemical reactions by enzymes.
Life Sciences - 14.02.2017 
Researchers investigate mechanical features of cells: An optical method for cell analysis and manipulation in the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence
Cells form tissues or organs, migrate from place to place and in doing that their mechanical features and forces generated within them play a key role. Researchers at the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence at Münster University have now investigated the mechanical features of cells in living zebrafish embryos using the holographic optical tweezers-based method.
Life Sciences - Environment - 05.02.2017 
On mosaics and melting-pots
Genetic studies of cichlid fishes suggest that interspecies hybrids played a prominent role in their evolution. Analysis of a unique fossil cichlid from the Upper Miocene of East Africa now provides further support for this idea. The cichlids constitute one of the most diverse families of freshwater fishes in tropical habitats.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 01.02.2017 
Basement membrane protein influences the connection of blood vessel cells: Tracking inflammatory processes / Study produced by researchers at Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence
Which molecular mechanisms are at work when, in the case of inflammation, immune cells migrate from the blood vessel into the tissue? Researchers at the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence at Münster University have gained new insights into this question: the laminin 511 protein, that underlies endothelial cells that form the inner cell layer of the blood vessel wall, influences how permeable the vessel is for immune cells.
Life Sciences
Results 41 - 60 of 66.
New Collaborative Research Center on a Fundamental Signaling Pathway in Development and Disease
A new Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) will investigate the function of a fundamental cellular signaling pathway. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the CRC will start its work at Heidelberg University. After successful review, the DFG approved approximately 8,5 million euros in funding for the next four years.
A new Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) will investigate the function of a fundamental cellular signaling pathway. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the CRC will start its work at Heidelberg University. After successful review, the DFG approved approximately 8,5 million euros in funding for the next four years.
Research news Dental plaque and the viscous brown slime in drainpipes are two familiar examples of bacterial biofilms. Removing such bacterial depositions from surfaces is often very difficult, in part because they are extremely water-repellent. A team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now been able to show how such biofilms adapt their surface texture to repel water - similar to leaves.
In experiments on transport tissues in plants, researchers from Heidelberg University were able to identify factors of crucial importance for the formation of the plant tissue known as phloem. According to Thomas Greb of the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), these factors differ from all previously known factors that trigger the specification of cells.
Research news In addition to essential metabolic functions, the level of zinc in the body also affects the heart muscle. When oxidative stress occurs, it may be due to a shortage of zinc, which can be determined by examining the heart muscle. A study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows the relationship between the total amount of zinc in the body and cardiac function.
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded biochemist Ed Hurt a highly endowed ERC Advanced Grant for outstanding research leaders in Europe. The researchers in Prof. Hurt's team want to study the largely unexplored processes that take place in the initial phase of the manufacture of these cellular protein factories.
Heidelberg Neuroscientists have identified a critical regulator for blood vessel growth in the developing embryonic spinal cord. The research group under the direction of Dr Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar of the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center discovered that special nerve cells known as motor neurons control this process.
Research news How does type 2 diabetes develop? A team of researchers headed by the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich has come closer to finding an answer to this problem. The team examined the functional effects of exemplary genetic variations relevant for type 2 diabetes.
Research news Diabetics have a significantly higher risk of suffering a heart attack. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now identified one of the causes: Diabetes is associated with the loss of small blood vessels around the heart. This in turn affects the entire cardiac muscle.
Research news Mutations in tumor suppressor genes mean that they can no longer keep tumors from growing. In developing cancer, often several mutations come into play. Using "jumping genes," scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) together with teams from Great Britain and Spain have identified a number of genes that can influence the growth of prostate and breast tumors.
Research news Plants possess molecular mechanisms that prevent them from blooming in winter. Once the cold of win-ter has passed, they are deactivated. However, if it is still too cold in spring, plants adapt their blooming behavior accordingly. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered genetic changes for this adaptive behavior.
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a highly endowed grant - an ERC Advanced Grant for leading researchers in Europe - to Heidelberg molecular biologist Bernd Bukau. The five-year endowment will fund a research project in which the scientists will study the maturation of proteins in cells.
Precise knowledge of the connections in the brain - the links between all the nerve cells - is a prerequisite for better understanding this most complex of organs. Researchers from Heidelberg University have now developed a new algorithm - a computational procedure - that can extract this connectivity pattern with far greater precision than previously possible from microscopic images of the brain.
Competition within mixed bacterial populations can give rise to complex growth dynamics. LMU researchers are probing the interplay between differential growth rates and stochastic factors in determining the composition of such populations. How do bacteria react to fluctuations in their environment? How do they respond to abiotic stresses or to competition with other microbes' And in mixed populations, what factors determine which of the competing species or strains win out in the end? These questions are not easy to answer, for bacterial communities represent complex and dynamic ecosystems.
Research news The genome molecule contains the blueprint for life. The manner in which the blueprint is packed into the cell determines which genes are active and which are set to inactive. Disturbing this structure can result in illnesses such as cancer. Munich scientists have now succeeded in using molecular "tweezers" made from DNA to measure interactions at the first packaging level of the genome.
Baden-Württemberg Foundation Funds Research Project on Protein Aggregation
Heidelberg molecular biologist Bernd Bukau has been awarded a grant of approximately 280,000 euros from the Baden-Württemberg Foundation for a research project on the neurodegenerative disorder of Parkinson's disease. The project is a continuation of the previous work by Prof. Bukau and his team on the dissolution of protein aggregates that are responsible for a number of different diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Heidelberg molecular biologist Bernd Bukau has been awarded a grant of approximately 280,000 euros from the Baden-Württemberg Foundation for a research project on the neurodegenerative disorder of Parkinson's disease. The project is a continuation of the previous work by Prof. Bukau and his team on the dissolution of protein aggregates that are responsible for a number of different diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Many breeds of dogs are prone to epileptic seizures. Veterinary neurologists and geneticists have now localized the mutation responsible for a specific form of epilepsy in Rhodesian ridgebacks. Rhodesian ridgebacks were originally bred for use in lion hunts, which explains why these these dogs are strongly built and robust.
The evolution of cells and organisms is thought to have been preceded by a phase in which informational molecules like DNA could be replicated selectively. New work shows that hairpin structures make particularly effective DNA replicators. In the metabolism of all living organisms there is a clear division of labor: Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) carry the information for the synthesis of proteins, and proteins provide the structural and executive functions required by cells, such as the controlled and specific catalysis of chemical reactions by enzymes.
Cells form tissues or organs, migrate from place to place and in doing that their mechanical features and forces generated within them play a key role. Researchers at the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence at Münster University have now investigated the mechanical features of cells in living zebrafish embryos using the holographic optical tweezers-based method.
Genetic studies of cichlid fishes suggest that interspecies hybrids played a prominent role in their evolution. Analysis of a unique fossil cichlid from the Upper Miocene of East Africa now provides further support for this idea. The cichlids constitute one of the most diverse families of freshwater fishes in tropical habitats.
Which molecular mechanisms are at work when, in the case of inflammation, immune cells migrate from the blood vessel into the tissue? Researchers at the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence at Münster University have gained new insights into this question: the laminin 511 protein, that underlies endothelial cells that form the inner cell layer of the blood vessel wall, influences how permeable the vessel is for immune cells.
