Parasitic worms help Professor Clarissa Prazeres da Costa and her team better understand the human immune system in order to find solutions to global health problems.
Why do blood clots develop in the first place—and why do they tend to recur? LMU researcher Konstantin Stark believes that the answers lie in the immune system.
At RCI, the Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology, international research groups develop immunotherapies and cellular therapies in order to help treating patients suffering from tumors, chronic inflammation or autoimmunity.
From junior research group leader to full professor and spokesperson of the Research Center for Infectious Diseases (ZINF) at the University of Würzburg. This is the scientific career path of Cynthia Sharma.
Physicists from the Universities of Bayreuth and Grenoble have discovered a new mechanism of cell mobility. Their findings challenge the classical dogma that the molecular motor myosin is essential for the movement of mammalian cells. This insight paves the way for new strategies to control cell movement, with potential implications for the treatment of diseases. The team reports their findings in the leading physics journal Physical Review Letters.
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 illness, the body also produces special T cells previously known only from chronic, severe infections and tumors.
A special liquid diet, known as exclusive enteral nutrition, is an essential therapy for Crohn's disease. Patients consume only this formula for six to eight weeks, completely avoiding solid foods. However, the exact reasons why this is helpful were previously unclear. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the LMU University Hospital Munich have now been able to decipher the mechanism behind this dietary therapy. Based on these results, they are launching a clinical study combining dietary therapy with faecal microbiome transfer to further enhance treatment outcomes.
Despite new medication, cystic fibrosis often leads to permanent lung damage. Working with an international team, researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered that the disease causes changes in the immune system early in life, presumably even in newborns. These changes lead to frequent inflammation and are not affected by drugs targeting the altered mucus production.
HIRI researchers provide new insights into gene regulation of the virus that causes AIDS
A new look at cancer cells: Thanks to an innovative method of super-resolution microscopy, researchers from the University of Würzburg have observed for the first time with molecular resolution in 3D how therapeutic antibodies attack and alter B cells, thereby inducing their destruction. The journal ‘Science’ presents the new type of molecular 3D visualisation of antibody-cell interactions. The visualisation of the molecular interaction between antibody and tumour cell opens up new avenues for improved immunotherapies against cancer.
