RNA Origami: Artificial Cytoskeletons to Build Synthetic Cells

Synthetic biologists create nanotubes folded from the natural RNA biomolecule

19-Mar-2025 - With the long-term goal of creating living cells from non-living components, scientists in the field of synthetic biology work with RNA origami. This tool uses the multifunctionality of the natural RNA biomolecule to fold new building blocks, making protein synthesis superfluous. In pursuit of ...

How Blood Vessels Are Formed

New insights into the development of the vascular system

18-Sep-2017 - New insights into the development of the vascular system: researchers in the team of Dr Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar of the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center have discovered a crucial biological step that regulates the formation of blood vessels. They were able to show that the proteins YAP ...

A Peek into the “Birthing Room” of Ribosomes

Scaffolding and specialised workers help with the delivery – Biochemists gain insights into biogenesis

19-Jul-2016 - A type of scaffolding on which specialised workers ply their trade helps in the manufacturing process of the two subunits from which the ribosome – the protein factory of the cell – originates. Biochemists at Heidelberg University discovered it after succeeding in getting a peek into the ...

Maternal smoking during pregnancy leaves its lasting mark on the childs genetic make-up

07-Apr-2016 - If mothers smoke during pregnancy, they influence the epigenetic programming of their unborn child's genetic make-up in the long term. This may give rise to an increased risk of the development of disease risks later in the child's life. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental ...

How a developmental gene controls feeding behaviour

New insight into how feeding behaviour is encoded and controlled

19-Jan-2016 - In experiments on the fruit fly model organism Drosophila melanogaster, Heidelberg University biologists gained new insight into how feeding behaviour is encoded and controlled. The research team led by Prof. Dr. Ingrid Lohmann of the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) studied the function of a ...

Systems biology software package developed at VBI is now open source for all users

18-Aug-2010 - A software package developed by a professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) and his colleagues to help researchers better understand the workings of biochemical networks now features an open source license, offering an ever wider range of benefits to its users. In development for ...

Discovery provides new drug targets for malaria cure

14-Jan-2010 - Researchers are a step closer to developing new antimalarial drugs after discovering the normal function of a set of proteins related to the malaria parasite protein, which causes resistance to the front-line drug chloroquine. The findings also provide a novel tool for studying the malarial ...

Are intravenous treatments safe?

New research raises doubts

02-Sep-2009 - German scientists have identified a serious and previously misunderstood contaminant that brings the safety and efficacy of intravenous treatments into question. In a report published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, they show how a common intravenous treatment used to boost blood pressure in ...

Scientists open doors to diagnosis of emphysema

EMBL development may provide powerful new test for inflammatory lung diseases

05-Aug-2009 - Chronic inflammatory lung diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema are a major global health problem, and the fourth leading cause of death and disability in developed countries, with smoking accounting for 90% of the risk for developing them. Work by scientists at the European Molecular ...

Dimethaid announces new pancreatic cancer trial with WF10

Phase II trial to be initiated at University of Heidelberg

26-Aug-2005 - Pharmaceutical developer Dimethaid Research Inc. announced that it is commencing a Phase II trial of its immune modulator, WF10, as adjuvant treatment for pancreatic cancer. The study will be conducted at the European Pancreas Center of the University of Heidelberg Clinic for Surgery, Germany, by ...