Archive Press Releases

Dr. Thomas Hofmann, junior research group leader at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), is awarded the €10,000 prize for his outstanding achievements in cancer research. Hofmann, a biologist, unraveled the mechanisms by which cells decide upon their further fate following DNA damage. His findings help to understand how cancer cells respond to therapies involving DNA damage.

To press release

The Presidial Board of the Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. DIN has admitted Dr. Karl-Friedrich Ziegahn, Chief Science Officer of KIT, to the Waldemar-Hellmich-Kreis. This was announced during a DIN celebration yesterday. The Honorary Senate of DIN has a maximum of 50 members, including former presidents of large research organizations and former board members of companies. The Waldemar-Hellmich-Kreis was established in 1957 and named after the founder of DIN. The members admitted to this group are persons, who promoted standardization during their professional work.

To press release

Researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) have identified an enzyme as a possible target for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The protein known as HDAC6 impairs transport processes within the nerve cells. The scientists observed only mild symptoms of the disease in mice if the enzyme was not produced. They propose to block its activity in a targeted fashion to treat the disease. Scientists from the DZNE sites in Göttingen and Bonn, the UMG as well as from the US participated in this basic research project on Alzheimer’s disease. The study is published in "EMBO Molecular Medicine".

To press release

Molecule called IκBNS in charge of regulatory immune cell maturation. A certain type of immune cell – the regulatory T cell, or Treg for short – is in charge of putting on the brakes on the immune response. In a way, this cell type might be considered the immune system"s traffic cop. Now, scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have looked into the origin of Tregs and uncovered a central role played by the protein IκBNS.

To press release

Public-private partnership for research of new pharmceutics. The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and its branch Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) are partners in & the project& COMPACT (Collaboration on the Optimisation of Macromolecular Pharmaceutical Access to Cellular Targets), initiated by the pharma company Sanofi. Thirteen further& academic research facilities, six pharmaceutical companies ...

To press release

Climate scientists are still grappling with one of the main questions of modern times: how high will global temperatures rise if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles. Many researchers are now turning to the past because it holds clues to how nature reacted to climate change before the anthropogenic impact. The divergent results of this research, however, have made it difficult to make precise predictions about the impact of increased carbon dioxide on future warming. An international team of scientists have evaluated previously published estimates and assigned them consistent categories and terminology.

To press release

Astrium, Europe’s leading space technology company, has been commissioned to build two new research satellites for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL (Pasadena, California). The agreement was signed today in Friedrichshafen, Germany. For a minimum of five years from August 2017, the Gravity Recovery and Climate ExperimentFollow-On (Grace FO) mission will continue the extremely accurate measurement data collection of the first twin Grace satellites, which have been in orbit since 17 March, 2002.

To press release

Using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, scientists have exposed a possible Achilles' heel of the sleeping sickness parasite that threatens more than 60 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. The sophisticated analysis revealed the blueprint for a molecular plug that can selectively block a vital enzyme of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Plugging such a tailor-made molecule into the right place of the enzyme would render it inactive, thereby killing the parasite. The team led by DESY scientist Prof. Henry Chapman from the Center of Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Prof. Christian Betzel from the University of Hamburg and Dr. Lars Redecke from the joint Junior Research Group "Structural Infection Biology using new Radiation Sources (SIAS)" of the Universities of Hamburg and Lübeck report their findings in the journal "Science". "This is the first new biological structure solved with a free-electron laser," said Chapman.

To press release

To the naked eye there is nothing to see, and yet the small transparent container holds something never observed before. For the first time, scientists are studying asteroid dust collected by a spacecraft and returned to Earth. Ute Böttger, from the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), belongs to one of 11 teams across the world that are carrying out scientific work on the asteroid particles from the Japanese Hayabusa mission.

To press release

Anybody knows the process that happens when you cook an egg: The initially liquid and transparent egg white turns solid and opaque. Heidelberg scientists from the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH) at Heidelberg University and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now discovered and unraveled a repair system used by cells to revert this protein aggregation. Experts from the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) also participated in the research project. The scientists have now reported their research results in two simultaneously published articles in the specialist journal “Nature Structural and Molecular Biology”.

To press release