Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2014-12-22, 09:34:33 | version 1.34.00
26 for personalised therapies. An important role is played by post-infection diseases such as cancer, metabolic dysfunction, neurodegeneration and chronic infections. Disorders of the Nervous System The goal of this programme is to study the causes of nervous system disorders and create more efficient methods for their prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. Research is focused above all on major neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but also addresses less common disorders such as Huntington’s chorea, amyo- trophic lateral sclerosis and prion diseases. In addition, scientists are studying disorders that may in part be based on similar pathological processes or that are often associated with classical neurodegenerative diseases. In order to develop better strategies for diagnosis, treatment and care, PROGRAMMES IN THE CURRENT FUNDING PERIOD 2014–2018 STRUCTURE OF CHOLESTEROL TRANSPORTER DECODED Together with Max Planck researchers, scientists at the DZNE have solved the atomic structure of the molecular transporter TSPO. This transporter introduces cholesterol into the cell’s power plants, the mitochondria, and also serves as a docking site for diagnostic markers and various medications such as Valium. The detailed knowledge of its three-dimensional shape is opening up new possibilities for diagnosis and treatment. COMPACT PROTON THERAPY FOR CANCER In a conceptual design study, researchers from the HZDR and OncoRay have reduced the size of a proton therapy facility by 50 per cent. To do so they replaced the facility’s ring accelerator with a laser accelerator that requires only a few millime- tres to accelerate particles. In order to guide the proton beam from the accelerator to the patient, they developed a compact guidance system that uses pulsed magnets and takes up less space than normally required for this component. The design would significantly reduce costs. Proton therapy is a very precise way of fighting cancer. POINTS OF ATTACK IDENTIFIED FOR TREATMENT OF BREAST CANCER Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. For patients with hormone-negative basal breast cancer, the prognosis is bleak. Because this cancer is not controlled by hormones, anti-hormone therapy is ineffec- tive. Together with their colleagues, Jane Holland and Walter Birchmeier have developed a model for this type of breast cancer based on two mutated and activated signalling pathways (ß-catenin/Wnt and HGF/Met). Their research has revealed new points of attack for therapy. Combinatory therapies that target signalling molecules and receptors have been par- ticularly successful in mice and could prove useful in human patients. Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) The cholesterol transporter TSPO serves as a docking site for important diagnostic markers and various medications such as Valium. Image: L. Jaremko, M. Jaremko, M. Zweckstetter/DZNE, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and UMG Basal breast cancer in a 3D organoid culture (left) and after treatment with an inhibitor of the Met receptor (right). Image: G. Valenti, J. Holland/MDC Design of a small proton therapy facility. Image: Umar Masood