Arthritis is a widespread condition affecting hundreds of thousands of people that leads to inflammation of the joints. It has many different causes, and if physicians are to treat the disease properly, it is important that they can determine exactly which type of arthritis the patient has. This is often no easy undertaking. A number of different parameters have to be considered and a definite diagnosis is often only possible as the disease progresses.
At Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), patients with severe forms of autoimmune diseases are being treated with cells from the body that have been genetically modified, which are known as CAR T cells. This study is the first of its kind in the world. Physicians were astounded to find that the therapy is like pushing a reset button: immediately after receiving treatment the autoimmune disease was resolved completely and did not return.
From cloudy glasses to deposits in dishwashers – limescale is a ubiquitous problem. An international research collaboration led by two researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has now investigated which substances could be added to dishwasher detergent to prevent the build-up of limescale. Knowledge about the mechanisms involved can be used to develop more sustainable ingredients. The results have been published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
Cereal, milk and meat were the staple diet of people in Britain as long as 5500 years ago. By carrying out a chemical analysis of lipid residues in well-preserved ceramics, a research team led by the University of Bristol and including researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have proven for the first time that people in Neolithic Britain not only consumed barley, but also wheat, which was prepared in clay pots designed especially for this purpose.
Many patients suffering from an autoimmune disease such as rheumatism, ulcerative colitis or psoriasis have to take medicine that affects their immune system. As the immune system also determines the effectiveness of vaccinations, several of those suffering from autoimmune diseases wonder whether it is safe for them to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 without incurring any complications as a direct result of the vaccine, and whether the vaccine will be just as effective and offer them protection for the same period as time as healthy people.
Rare diseases, as the name indicates, only affect a small part of the population. However, for those affected they are particularly challenging, often especially because research into such rare diseases tends to be less of a priority. One of these diseases is hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), a disease that causes spasms and weakness in the leg muscles, increasingly affecting mobility as the disease progresses. Approximately 77,000 people across Europe suffer from the condition. Researchers have already discovered that the disease starts in nerve cells in the brain. These are obviously particularly difficult to investigate.
In recognition of our outstanding expertise in quantum research: a consortium consisting of eleven researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) will receive roughly three million euros in funding by 2025. The new lighthouse project Quantum Measurement and Control for the Enablement of Quantum Computing and Quantum Sensing (QuMeCo) will ignite basic research into quantum computing, sensing and imaging, combining physics and electrical engineering in new ways in the field of light and matter.
Long periods in space damage bone structure irreparably in some cases and can make parts of the human skeleton age prematurely by up to 10 years. This is what a sport scientist at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has now discovered in conjunction with other researchers from Germany, Canada and the USA. Adapted training programs in conjunction with medication could provide better protection for astronauts on future space missions. The researchers have published their findings, which will now be also be used for treating rheumatic conditions in clinical practice, in the scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports.
At the current time, there is no cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Things may be about to change, however. Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have identified a protein that already displays pathological characteristics at an early stage of the neurological disease. The team has published their discovery, that could lead to a new approach for treating the disease, in the journal “Acta Neuropathologica”.
Lots of little dots with no apparent pattern: where laypeople may just see milky gray photos sprinkled with what looks like random crumbs, it is enough to make astronomers’ hearts miss a beat. We are talking about historical photographic plates showing negatives of the night sky. Together with the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam and the universities of Hamburg and Tartu (Estonia), researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have digitized the images and published them online. After a total of 10 years, the project has now been completed successfully, thanks to the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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