An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Janosch Hennig from the University of Bayreuth has discovered how the TRIM25 protein contributes to defense against RNA viruses whose genetic material is contained as ribonucleic acid (RNA). The results provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the human immune system. The researchers have now reported their findings in Nature Communications. What for? The coronavirus has shown that there is a risk of a pandemic if viruses that are dangerous…

The Hannover Medical School (MHH) is one of the first institutions in Germany to be allowed to perform a new innovative treatment for hemophilia A and B. Cell and gene therapies are on the rise. This is a new ray of hope for people with previously untreatable or hardly treatable diseases. Another novel therapeutic method is now being added: gene therapy for hemophilia. The Hemophilia Center at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) is one of the first in Germany to…

LMU researchers demonstrate that certain immune cells already play an important role in the early stages of multiple sclerosis. The researchers compared the CD8 T cells of monozygotic twin pairs, of which one twin suffers from MS while the other is asymptomatic and found specific changes These findings could open new therapeutic avenues and could be used to develop new diagnostic methods Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system….

Found the bacterial needle in the haystack. Imagine a country with a billion people, where every individual has different interests and different goals. You will never know their interests and goals until you ask them, but asking a billion people is not an easy task. This is the same complex scenario that scientists face when we study bacteria. There are about a billion of them in a colony the size of tip of a pencil, but when we look at…

Saarland Remains a Beacon in Biomedical Science. Good news for biomedical research in Saarland: The Leibniz ScienceCampus (LSC) “Living Therapeutic Materials” is entering its second funding phase after four years of successful research. The Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM), Saarland University (UdS), and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) are starting the next phase of the Leibniz ScienceCampus on October 1. The Leibniz Association and the Saarland government are contributing a total of €1.6 million to fund…

The BICAN Rapid Release Inventory provides early access to comprehensive single-cell data, aiming to accelerate brain research. The BRAIN Initiative® Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) has launched its first major data release, marking a significant milestone in the ambitious effort to map the whole human brain. The data, accessible through the BICAN Rapid Release Inventory, includes single-cell and single-nucleus transcriptomic and epigenomic profiles from humans, mice, and 10 other mammalian species. Sourced from multiple grants and labs within the consortium, including…

An AI research collaboration led by EPFL professor Alexander Mathis creates a model which provides deep insights into hand movement, which is an essential step for the development of neuroprosthetics and rehabilitation technologies. In neuroscience and biomedical engineering, accurately modeling the complex movements of the human hand has long been a significant challenge. Current models often struggle to capture the intricate interplay between the brain’s motor commands and the physical actions of muscles and tendons. This gap not only hinders…

In-vitro Skin Makes Cell Reaction to Test Substance Measurable in Real Time. The EU has banned animal testing for cosmetics and non-animal alternative methods are preferable for the risk assessment of new chemical substances. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, a three-dimensional skin model has now been set up for the first time that directly displays the skin’s reaction to substances: The reporter skin. Thanks to the built-in reporter, the cellular response can be measured precisely…

Bonn researchers reclassify leading gene variants, a large proportion of them as benign. The genetic confirmation of a suspected diagnosis of “hereditary colorectal cancer” is of great importance for the medical care of affected families. However, many of the variants identified in the known genes cannot yet be reliably classified in terms of their causal role in tumor formation. Under the leadership of the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, an international team of researchers has reassessed…

A new hand-held scanner developed by UCL researchers can generate highly detailed 3D photoacoustic images in just seconds, paving the way for their use in a clinical setting for the first time and offering the potential for earlier disease diagnosis. In the study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the team show their technology can deliver photoacoustic tomography (PAT) imaging scans to doctors in real time, providing them with accurate and intricate images of blood vessels, helping inform patient care. Photoacoustic…

Clinical study of microscope-integrated system lays groundwork for using OCT to define tumor margins and reveal subsurface brain anatomy. Researchers have successfully integrated a megahertz-speed optical coherence tomography (MHz-OCT) system into a commercially available neurosurgical microscope and demonstrated its clinical usefulness. This advancement represents an important step toward developing an OCT instrument that could be used to identify tumor margins during brain surgery. OCT is a non-invasive imaging technique that provides high-resolution, cross-sectional images of tissue that allow visualization of…

Thanks to New Machine Learning Method… Using smartly trained neural networks, researchers at TU Graz have succeeded in generating precise real-time images of the beating heart from just a few MRI measurement data. Other MRI applications can also be accelerated using this procedure. Medical imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is very time-consuming since an image has to be compiled from data from many individual measurements. Thanks to the use of machine learning, imaging is also possible with less MRI…

In a recent study, researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena have shown how they can non-invasively and non-destructively investigate the growth and interactions of the green alga Ulva and its bacterial community using Raman spectroscopy. This method allows precise analysis of algae development without disturbing the sensitive processes. The study was published in the journal ChemPhysChem. Algae such as Ulva, also known as sea lettuce, play a vital role in…

A new study by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich shows for the first time that bitter tasting protein fragments (peptides) are produced in the stomach during the digestion of the natural sweetener thaumatin. In a cellular test system, the peptides are able to stimulate the acid secretion of human stomach cells and influence inflammatory reactions. “Our research helps to elucidate the health effects of the plant protein, which is widely used as…

… for predicting risk of sudden cardiac death. Scientists at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute have developed a world-first individualised risk prediction tool for people suffering from a type of heart arrhythmia that can cause sudden cardiac arrest. This is the first time a gene mutation-specific test has been applied to predict the severity of heart disease. The discovery was made in conjunction with colleagues at the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre and could also benefit patients suffering from other heart arrhythmias and neurological…

Lignocellulosic biomass is the largest renewable carbon resource on earth. Cellulose and hemicellulose, featuring polymeric carbohydrate structure, are important components of lignocellulose. Refinery of the carbohydrates to target products remains a major challenge for their valorization. One solution is fully breaking the C‒C bonds, so the carbohydrates are converted to C1 chemicals, such as CO and HCOOH. Photocatalysis on semiconductors can generate oxidative holes that can activate chemical bonds theoretically. The radical mechanism can circumvent the formation of humins that…