Power vaccination against cancer boosts the immune system

New hope: Researchers are mobilising the immune system's defence against tumour cells within just two weeks using a two-phase vaccination regimen

29-Apr-2025 - Our body's own defence system not only clears away bacteria and viruses, it can also fight cancer. However, not all tumour cells are easily recognisable by the immune system. In addition, they are constantly changing and camouflaging themselves to evade the defence system. In order to treat ...

Engineering Smart Delivery for Gene Editors

Restoring Vision: New hope for genetic diseases and cancer therapies

11-Apr-2025 - A research team from Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich has developed an advanced delivery system that transports gene-editing tools based on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system into living cells with significantly greater efficiency than before. Their technology, ENVLPE, ...

New findings on T cell exhaustion

The body prepares early for mild to severe disease

10-Apr-2025 - Even in the case of uncomplicated infections, the body prepares itself early on for the possibility of a more severe course. A research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Helmholtz Munich has now uncovered this mechanism. The scientists showed that, right at the onset of mild ...

Nursery of the Blood: How Stem Cells Calm the Body’s Immune Response

The researchers uncovered an unexpected finding

28-Mar-2025 - Our blood consists of many cell types that develop through different stages from a precursor type – the blood stem cell. An international research team led by Universitätsmedizin Frankfurt and Goethe University has now investigated the developmental pathways of blood cells in humans. The results ...

“Aging Clock” reveals aging processes in immune cells

Research team creates AI-based computer model that makes aging visible at the cellular level for the first time

20-Mar-2025 - Not only does our body change with age, but so does our immune system. A recent study led by the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM) shows exactly how immune cells age and how infections and vaccinations can influence this process. The CiiM is a joint initiative of the Helmholtz ...

Rare side effect discovered in cancer immunotherapy

25-Feb-2025 - 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 Hospital, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology and Cologne University ...

Stockholm-based biotech start-up aims to develop the next generation of cell therapies

Neogap Therapeutics' PIOR technology identifies targets for personalised liver cancer immunotherapies

17-Feb-2025 - A new study published in the scientific journal Gut examines how immune system T cells respond to tumours in patients with advanced liver cancer (HCC). Using Neogap Therapeutics' PIOR® software platform, the researchers have identified tumour-specific mutations, which may contribute to the ...

Rapid success: innovative therapy stops deadly brain inflammation

’We are convinced that our method will revolutionise the treatment of infectious diseases’

27-Nov-2024 - Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare but serious brain infection. It gradually destroys brain tissue and often leads to death within a few weeks. It is caused by the human polyomavirus 2 – also known as the John Cunningham (JC) virus. In 2021, an interdisciplinary team at ...

New therapeutic approach for severe COVID-19: faster recovery and reduction in mortality

The approach may also be applicable to other infections

15-Nov-2024 - A new clinical study shows that an inhibitor of Fas ligand (FasL), also called CD95 ligand (CD95L), led to a faster recovery of COVID-19 patients and reduced mortality. On average, it took eight days to recover for patients who received asunercept, a biotherapeutic FasL inhibitor, compared to 13 ...

Leveraging intercellular mitochondria transfer to boost cancer immunotherapies

A new cancer busting platform

17-Sep-2024 - An international team of researchers, led by Professor Luca Gattinoni at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT), has developed an innovative mitochondrial transfer platform to supercharge CD8+ T cells, enabling them to overcome exhaustion and more effectively fight tumor cells. Cancer ...