Memory self-test via smartphone can identify early signs of Alzheimer’s disease

German-US research team and Magdeburg-based start-up have proven that memory problems can be recognised using an app

05-Apr-2024 - Dedicated memory tests on smartphones enable the detection of “mild cognitive impairment”, a condition that may indicate Alzheimer’s disease, with high accuracy. Researchers from DZNE, the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States who ...

Uniform standards for food allergy research

Europe-wide initiative defines criteria to improve the comparability of study results on IgE-mediated food allergies

13-Mar-2024 - In the European research network COMFA, together with the team led by healthcare researcher Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Apfelbacher from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, internationally valid criteria for observational and intervention studies on IgE-mediated food allergies were defined for ...

A tiny molecule with a big impact

Immunologists have deciphered a new role of nitric oxide in the defense against pathogens.

26-Oct-2021 - Nitric oxide (NO) occurs naturally in the human body as a messenger substance. It is considered an all-rounder, as it performs numerous important regulatory functions, including immune defense against pathogens. The exact mode of action of this molecule has now been uncovered by immunologist ...

Mast cells: sentinels and high-speed messengers of the immune defense

A team of scientists unravels a crucial mechanism of cell-cell-communication during the defense against pathogens

09-Feb-2021 - In order to fight pathogens, mast cells regulate inflammatory reactions of the immune system. Both mast cells and neutrophils are white blood cells and are critical for the body’s immune defense. A team of scientists around the immunologist Prof. Dr. Anne Dudeck and the bioengineer Jan Dudeck has ...

"Happiness hormone" controls fear memories

Scientists find that associative learning of fear is mediated by a novel dopamine circuit

02-Jul-2018 - A team of neurobiologists, led by scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, has identified a novel neuronal circuit in the midbrain that gates fear learning. They found that the neurotransmitter dopamine, so far merely associated with reward and motivation, ...

First line of defence against influenza further decoded

23-Feb-2018 - Time and again – the flu is coming to Germany. The number of cases of the current wave of influenza is still rising. When influenza viruses – the cause of the flu – enter our body, the immune system recognises them as being foreign by means of various receptors and starts a defence programme. ...

Chronically ill, yet healthier

11-Jul-2017 - The incidence of chronic inflammatory lung diseases is on the rise throughout the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), they will become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030. So far, there is no reliable therapy, which only reflects the fact that the underlying ...

Rare blood disease improves the defence against germs

Increased immune reaction associated with a rare bone marrow disease

20-Feb-2017 - Patients afflicted by myeloproliferative neoplasia – a group of chronic malignant bone marrow diseases – bear a mutation in their haematopoietic stem cells. The mutation leads to the bone marrow producing too many blood cells, which thickens the blood. This can lead to blood clots or clogged ...

When learning is fun

How the brain simulates external rewards to boost memory formation

23-Sep-2016 - Volunteers had to learn the meaning of a new word using the context provided by two sentences. Correct learning could only be achieved if both sentences evoked a congruent meaning. Activity of the reward-memory loop (accumbens-midbrain-hippocampus) plus the subjective feeling of pleasantness ...