Dossier - 19/10/2022

More food sustainability: crucial for people and for the environment

Strawberries in winter and imported apples? You can find them in most supermarkets. This is not sustainable. Looking to the future, the way we eat needs to change in many mundane ways – and this needs to happen quickly so that future generations will also be able to enjoy a planet that is worth living on. In Baden-Württemberg, alternative nutrition concepts are being worked at pace. Many creative ideas and innovative products already exist.

Dossier - 12/10/2022

The health sector must become greener

Worldwide, the health sector is struggling with the consequences of global warming, but fatally is itself responsible for a significant proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. Studies show that hospitals and rehabilitation clinics in particular have great potential for reducing these emissions and, like the manufacturing industry, need to fundamentally revise established processes.

Across the EU, more than 300 billion items of packaging are not recycled every year because they consist of a mixture of different materials. Monomaterial packaging on the other hand is easy to recycle. However, it needs to be coated with ultra-thin barrier layers to protect delicate products just as well as compound materials do.

Across the EU, more than 300 billion items of packaging are not recycled every year because they consist of a mixture of different materials. Monomaterial packaging on the other hand is easy to recycle. However, it needs to be coated with ultra-thin barrier layers to protect delicate products just as well as compound materials do.

More animal welfare and better animal health, more climate protection and less environmental impact: Researchers at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart are pursuing these goals with a new approach: They are exploring the interplay between farm animals and the millions of microorganisms in the animals’ digestive tracts. The federal and state governments are supporting the university with the construction of a unique research center for around…

Basic chemicals, which are needed as raw materials for a wide range of products such as medicines and detergents, can currently only be produced with an enormously high input of energy and raw materials. In many cases, fossil fuels and raw materials are still used. The extraction of chemical substances alone requires high temperatures, expensive catalysts made of precious metals and, in some cases, environmentally harmful starting materials.

Basic chemicals, which are needed as raw materials for a wide range of products such as medicines and detergents, can currently only be produced with an enormously high input of energy and raw materials. In many cases, fossil fuels and raw materials are still used. The extraction of chemical substances alone requires high temperatures, expensive catalysts made of precious metals and, in some cases, environmentally harmful starting materials.

In the brain of adult mammals neural stem cells ensure that new nerve cells, i.e. neurons, are constantly formed. This process, known as adult neurogenesis, helps mice maintain their sense of smell. A research team led by Dr Francesca Ciccolini at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN) of Heidelberg University recently discovered a second stem cell population in the mouse brain.

The glass facade of a high-rise building can get so hot that you can fry eggs on it – a major factor in the overheating of our cities. At the same time, flood events such as torrential monsoon rains cause billions of dollars of damage annually. On October 4, 2022, a solution to both problems was presented at the University of Stuttgart.

The glass facade of a high-rise building can get so hot that you can fry eggs on it – a major factor in the overheating of our cities. At the same time, flood events such as torrential monsoon rains cause billions of dollars of damage annually. On October 4, 2022, a solution to both problems was presented at the University of Stuttgart.

Büsnau biorefinery - 05/10/2022

KoalAplan: municipal wastewater as a source of recyclable materials

Our wastewater not only contains dirt and excretions, but is also rich in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be recovered. A sewage plant can thus become a source of raw materials. In the KoalAplan project, a new type of biorefinery will be used to convert the carbon recovered from wastewater into sustainable products.

Although just cute little creatures at first glance, the microscopic geckos and octopuses fabricated by 3D laser printing in the molecular engineering labs at Heidelberg University could open up new opportunities in fields such as microrobotics or biomedicine. The printed microstructures are made from novel materials – known as smart polymers – whose size and mechanical properties can be tuned on demand and with high precision.

Fossil raw materials are limited and not available and extractable everywhere in the world – as we are becoming acutely aware of right now by the example of fossil fuels and rising energy prices. Renewable raw material sources will therefore play an increasingly important role in the future: as energy sources, but ideally also as suppliers of building blocks for more environmentally compatible chemicals and materials.

Screening trials for the early detection of rare diseases often fail due to insufficient predictive power of the results. For the rare HPV-related cancer of the pharynx, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) now relied on the combined detection of antibodies against two different viral proteins in a proof-of concept trial.

Press release - 23/09/2022

Phytopharmaceuticals and valuable plant ingredients - opportunities for industry and agriculture in Baden-Württemberg

The "Phytopharmaceuticals and Valuable Plant Ingredients" initiative aims to make the key economic issue of phytopharmaceuticals more visible in Baden-Württemberg in order to gain a better understanding of the challenges and needs of the state’s pharmaceutical industry. The overall goal is to strengthen the use of secondary plant ingredients in valuable products and build on this to develop opportunities for Baden-Württemberg…

Hummingbird Diagnostics GmbH - 22/09/2022

The great potential of blood-based microRNA analyses

"The early bird catches the worm", is an apt description of what motivates Hummingbird Diagnostics GmbH from Heidelberg. The medium-sized biotechnology company analyses special biomarkers in blood, so-called microRNAs, in order to diagnose diseases at an early stage and to be able to make forecasts about the course of the disease and the success of therapy.

With its "Proof of Concept" grants, the European Research Council ERC supports scientists in further developing the commercial potential of their research results. Nina Papavasiliou from the DKFZ is now receiving the prestigious grant for the second time: she wants to advance the development of a "molecular delivery service" that ensures that therapeutic genes reach the right address in the body in a targeted manner.

Because of their highly active metabolism, many tumors are susceptible to a special type of cell death, ferroptosis. Nevertheless, cancer cells often manage to escape this fate. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now discovered a new mechanism by which normal as well as cancer cells protect themselves against ferroptosis.

Article - 14/09/2022

Theranostics of prostate cancer: the combination of radionuclide diagnostics and radionuclide therapy

Using a low-level radiopharmaceutical that binds to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), positron emission tomography/computed tomography can be used to visualise even small prostate cancer metastases. Developed by Heidelberg researchers, the radiopharmaceutical is a modified radionuclide diagnostic agent that has been coupled with a powerful emitter and used as a therapeutic tracer to irradiate and destroy cancer cells from within.

In its statement of September 2, 2022, the Bioeconomy Council of the German government condemns the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine and points out ways in which the resulting food and energy crisis can be alleviated with the help of the bioeconomy.

Cancer cells often grow in environments that are low in nutrients, and they cope with this challenge by switching their metabolism to using proteins as alternative "food". Building on genetic screens, an international team of scientists could identify the protein LYSET as part of a pathway that allows cancer cells to make this switch. Their findings are now published in the journal Science.

Dossier - 08/09/2022

Imaging methods in medical diagnostics

Many different imaging methods are available these days and are used in almost all medical disciplines to visualise disease-related changes. Depending on the problem and the clinical picture, very different structural and functional parameters can be visually recorded for diagnosis and used for therapy.

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.