Liver transplantation is the standard treatment for end-stage liver failure. However, due to a lack of sufficient donor organs, the use of livers from “extended criteria donors”, so-called marginal (inferior) organs, is increasing, ultimately leading to a dramatically higher incidence of transplantation-induced ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI).
Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive form of lung cancer that tends to metastasize and comes with a fatal prognosis. Complete remission is often achieved in the treatment of SCLC patients during primary therapy, but over 90% of patients experience a relapse with a therapy-resistant tumor within 6-12 months and usually die within a year. To date, there is no approved maintenance therapy that stabilizes the initial success of primary therapy and significantly extends the survival of SCLC patients.
Applicant: Prof. Dr. med. Helmut Salih, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Christoph Keplinger was selected for an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. At 36 years of age, he is one of the youngest award winner of Germany's most valuable international research award to date. Keplinger will hold the first professorship at the Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EKFZ) at Technische Universität Dresden. The internationally renowned physicist and materials scientist will strengthen and expand interdisciplinary research in Dresden in the field of soft robotics with his expertise.
Munich – Scientists in Hamburg are aiming to improve therapy for HIV patients with a new gene- and cell-based method. At the Hamburg biotech start-up Provirex, they are developing a new therapeutic approach using ‘molecular scissors’ to cut HIV genes out of the genome of infected cells, thus eliminating the virus. This could at last make it possible to remove the virus rather than keeping it in check, as with current forms of treatment. Ascenion GmbH and the Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg GmbH have acquired shares in the newly founded company.
With over 1 million procedures worldwide each year, complete hip replacement is one of the most successful surgeries in modern arthroplasty. Despite long lifetimes of typically 10-15 years, the high number of procedures also implies a large number of revision procedures in which the endoprosthesis must be removed and replaced. A large proportion of the endoprosthesis are stabilized with bone cement, which must also be completely removed during revision surgery to ensure the stability of the replacement prosthesis.
With the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors, the treatment landscape of numerous cancer entities has been revolutionized. However, severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs) can occur, which oftentimes require ICI discontinuation and corticosteroid treatment, hence limiting the success of ICI therapy. In our project, we aim to analyze the pathomechanisms of irAE development with a focus on the immunoregulatory microRNA miR-146a. Moreover, we want to identify and examine further potentially involved microRNAs.
The world’s population is continuously ageing, especially in the industrialised nations, which is associated with an impairment of haematopoiesis. Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), i.e. the cells that give rise to all the cellular constituents of our blood, reside in the bone marrow microenvironment (BMM), by which they are also regulated. The BMM contains various cellular and acellular constituents. The extracellular matrix is an acellular component of this BMM and was shown by us and others to influence HSCs or blood stem cells.
Worldwide, obesity and its associated diseases, mainly type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disorders (hypertension, arteriosclerosis), represent strongly rising problems in humans. In 2016, the World Health Organization reported that more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight and of these, more than 650 million were obese. 18 million people die every year from the consequences of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, and this accounts for about one third of all deaths worldwide.
Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe, 26. Februar 2020 – Die Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (EKFS) hat für insgesamt drei Forschungskollegs eine dreijährige Förderung in Höhe von jeweils einer Million Euro neu bewilligt. Die Entscheidung fiel auf die Standorte Heidelberg, Ulm und Würzburg. Mit den Forschungskollegs unterstützt die EKFS die medizinischen Fakultäten und Hochschulkliniken in Deutschland dabei, die nötigen Rahmenbedingungen für forschende Ärzte (Clinician Scientists) zu schaffen.
