news

Researchers at the university hospitals in Jena, Aachen, Essen, Halle and Leipzig have developed an app that supports doctors in the treatment of bloodstream infections with staphylococci. The app was evaluated in a large prospective multicentre study at five university hospitals with more than 5,000 patients.

A team from the Max Planck Research Group for Systems Immunology at the University of Würzburg has identified a previously unknown phase of the immune response. These new insights have significant implications for the development of vaccines and cellular immunotherapies. The research groups led by Wolfgang Kastenmüller and Georg Gasteiger employed innovative microscopy techniques to observe how specific immune cells, known as T'cells, are activated and proliferate during a viral infection.

Half a million people worldwide are diagnosed with esophageal cancer every year. It is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. A study with significant involvement from Leipzig University Medicine shows how the chances of recovery for patients can be improved. The results were published in the renowned New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers have discovered and analyzed a rare but serious side effect of an innovative form of blood cancer therapy. The results of the study have been published by scientists from Leipzig University Medicine, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology and Cologne University Hospital in the high-ranking journal Nature Medicine.

In addition to the traditional press releases, Leipzig University provides information on current topics in the form of short news items. This time about two high-ranking research publications from the Faculty of Medicine. More strength in the muscles: Researchers discover new mechanism for male sex hormone Researchers at Leipzig University Medicine and Shandong University in China have discovered a new mechanism by which a male sex hormone, which is essential for muscle and bone function, can exert its effect.

Body weight and body mass index alone say too little about whether someone will develop metabolic disorders. A new atlas of cells in adipose tissue could now help to decipher why some overweight people remain healthy and others do not. The results have been published in the journal Cell Metabolism with the lead participation of Leipzig University Medicine.

Researchers at Leipzig University Medicine and Shandong University in China have discovered a new mechanism by which a male sex hormone, which is essential for muscle and bone function, can exert its effect. Based on these findings, new drugs with fewer side effects could be developed that are used, for example, to strengthen the muscles of immobile patients.

A large proportion of the approximately six million patients in Germany suffering from type 2 diabetes are overweight. The effect of insulin is impaired in these patients. The cause of this insulin resistance has been sought primarily in metabolically active organs for a long time. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim have now shown that the effects of insulin on the innermost cell layer of blood vessels, the endothelium, are of great importance for insulin resistance in fat tissue and muscle.

Researchers at Leipzig University have developed a new process for reversing the polarity of chemical compounds, also known as umpolung, for the precise synthesis of pharmaceuticals. This innovative method, developed by a team of scientists led by Professor Christoph Schneider at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, provides a solution-oriented approach to a long-standing challenge in organic and medicinal chemistry," says Till Friedmann, lead author of It has just been published in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society.

A new look at cancer cells: Würzburg researchers show in the journal 'Science' how therapeutic antibodies work - thanks to an innovative method of super-resolution microscopy. In blood cancers such as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, B cells of the immune system multiply uncontrollably. One form of therapy involves labelling the CD20 protein on the surface of the B cells with customised antibodies.

Researchers from the University of Bonn are using an innovative method to watch immune receptors go about their business Immune cells are capable of detecting infections just like a sniffer dog, using special sensors known as Toll-like receptors, or TLRs for short. But what signals activate TLRs, and what is the relationship between the scale and nature of this activation and the substance being detected? In a recent study, researchers from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) used an innovative method to answer these questions.

Head and neck cancers are among the ten most common cancers worldwide. Head and neck tumors account for about three to five percent of all cancers, with squamous cell carcinomas being the predominant form. They occur in areas such as the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx. An international team of researchers led by Sara Wickström has now developed a new technique that allows the properties of cancer cells and their surrounding tissue to be analyzed in detail at the single-cell level.

Researchers from the University of Bonn have trained an AI process to predict potential active ingredients with special properties. Therefore, they derived a chemical language model - a kind of ChatGPT for molecules. Following a training phase, the AI was able to exactly reproduce the chemical structures of compounds with known dual-target activity that may be particularly effective medications.

Spatial proteomics provides therapeutic approach for patients with toxic epidermal necrolysis A global team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry has made a groundbreaking discovery that saves the lives of patients suffering from toxic epidermal necrolysis. This rare but often fatal reaction to common medications causes widespread detachment of the skin.

In Germany, around 17,000 people are diagnosed with gastric cancer every year. The disease is one of the leading causes of tumour-related deaths. This is due to late diagnosis and the rapid spread of tumour cells throughout the body. In two international clinical trials, a team of scientists involving the University of Leipzig Medical Center have investigated a drug that can prolong patients' survival.

Researchers at the University of Leipzig Medical Center have deciphered a new mechanism that plays a central role in the development of diabetic kidney disease. Their study focuses on a coagulation protein. It can be detected in urine samples from patients in the early stages of the disease and can be used as a diagnostic marker.

A team of scientists led by Professor Annette Beck-Sickinger from the Institute of Biochemistry at Leipzig University has made an important advance in pain relief research. They discovered that hederagenin, a naturally occurring substance found in the medicinal plant ivy, binds to the pain regulation receptor.

A new highly effective thrombosis inhibitor is in sight: Würzburg scientists present promising inhibitor EMA601 for efficient prevention and treatment of arterial thrombosis and inflammatory reactions without increased bleeding risk. An unhealthy lifestyle, diseases or injuries, genetic predisposition, and increased coagulation tendency can promote the formation of thrombi in blood vessels.

In a first, a Bochum-based team has produced a substance capable of sending cancer cells into ferroptosis, that is a specific form of cell death. This could pave the way for the development of new drugs. Conventional cancer drugs work by triggering apoptosis, that is programmed cell death, in tumor cells.

A substance derived from the plant Ardisia crenata works in a different way than existing drugs. And in doing so, it is highly effective. Pulmonary hypertension is a very serious disease that leads to heart failure and death in many patients. Searching for new treatment options, a team headed by Professor Daniela Wenzel and Alexander Seidinger from the Department of Systems Physiology at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, tested the plant substance FR900359 - referred to as FR by the researchers.