Press releases
News and views on research at the Helmholtz Association - this is the place to look for all the press releases issued by the Helmholtz Association Research Centres. A comfortable search function helps you to view specific news items from the Helmholtz Research Centres in chronological order. Older press releases since 2003 can be found in our archive or on the website of the relevant Helmholtz Research Centre.
At present only a selection of press releases is available in English - switch to the German version with the topmost navigation bar for a complete overview.
03 June 2013, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research
Is it possible to diagnose a tumour and treat it at the same time? This idea might become reality in the near future. In a joint experiment of GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH and the Technical University in Darmstadt (TUD) with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), USA, researchers showed in December 2012 that beams of fast protons could do the trick. Scientists call the combination of therapy and diagnosis "theranostics".
03 June 2013, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Bonn. A new study reveals that SE-Asian monitor lizards representing the worlds? largest lizards are being harvested (in spite of existing legislation) and traded for their skins and as pets in imperceptible volumes ? and much of this trade is illegal. Germany plays a major role in the international trade with live reptiles. On June 8, 2013, the world?s largest reptile fair will take place in Germany (Hamm, Westphalia).
10 June 2013, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
In collaboration with researchers from England, Ireland and Switzerland as well as the U.S., Japan and China, scientists in Kiel and Berlin have identified variants in four gene regions which strongly increase the risk for atopic dermatitis. The results of the study conducted by the Department of Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology, the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) of the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel, Kiel University (CAU), the Cluster of Excellence Inflammation at Interfaces, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, and the Department of Pediatric Allergology of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) of the Charité and the MDC have now been published in the journal Nature Genetics (http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.2642.html).
31 May 2013, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Grabens, dendritic valleys, lava flows and the highest known mountain in the Solar System – in the images from the German stereo camera on board the Mars Express spacecraft, the topography of the Red Planet appears so three-dimensional that you could walk through it.
31 May 2013, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
To sustain life, processes in biological cells have to be strictly controlled both in time and in space. By using the MX-Beamline of synchrotron radiation source BESSY II research workers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and the Free University of Berlin have elucidated a previously unknown mechanism that regulates one of the essential processes accompanying gene expression in higher organisms. In humans, errors in this control mechanism can lead to blindness. This discovery has been published in the renowned scientific journal Science (23th may 2013).
