The ageing brain: Changes in gene activity detected in different cell types

Findings could provide starting points for slowing down the ageing process and delaying neurodegenerative diseases

10-Sep-2024 - Ageing is a complex biological process that also takes place in the brain. Researchers have discovered that the gene activity changes in different cell types in the brain. A certain type of neuron is particularly affected. In the long term, the findings could provide starting points for slowing ...

In severe COVID-19 cases, neutrophils work around the clock

Scientists were able to track over time what happens in molecular biology from the onset of infection to organ damage

19-Jun-2024 - The course of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections depends not only on how aggressive the virus is, but also on the immune response of the infected individual. Using single-cell analyses, a group of researchers led by Samantha Praktiknjo of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), Markus ...

Father's Diet Before Conception Influences Children's Health

Father's body weight influences the weight of the children and their susceptibility to metabolic diseases

07-Jun-2024 - A recent study conducted by Helmholtz Munich and the German Center for Diabetes Research provides new insights into how fathers' diets and overweight can affect their children's health even before conception. The findings of the study can help develop preventive health measures for men wishing to ...

How machine learning, data integration and AI contribute to better strategies in the fight against pathogens

Researchers develop a new machine learning approach

15-Jan-2024 - To combat viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, synthetic biology offers new technological approaches whose performance is being validated in experiments. Researchers from the Würzburg Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research and the Helmholtz AI Cooperative applied data integration ...

How male mosquitoes compensate for having only one X chromosome

Research findings could spur new solutions to curb malaria

11-Oct-2023 - The research group of Dr Claudia Keller Valsecchi (Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz, Germany) and their collaborators have discovered the master regulator responsible for balancing the expression of X chromosome genes between males and females in the malaria mosquito. This discovery helps ...

Falling Walls announces Science Breakthrough of the Year 2023 laureates

“These outstanding breakthroughs will change the face of the world and impressively prove what ingenuity, curiosity and courage can achieve”

14-Sep-2023 - Which are the next walls to fall in science and society? The Falling Walls Foundation has announced the first six laureates of its Science Breakthrough of the Year award. The title is awarded annually and recognizes scientific breakthroughs in all academic disciplines. “These outstanding ...

New Molecular Microscopy Uncovers how Breast Cancer Spreads

"The exciting thing about this technology is that for the first time, we can see how the environment shapes cancer evolution"

11-Nov-2022 - Researchers have created a tool that maps how breast cancer grows in previously unseen detail, and highlights how the cells around the tumour may be the key to controlling the spread of disease. The new technology can trace which populations of breast cancer cells are responsible for the spread ...

Chemotherapy or not?

Success in researching most effective methods for cancer therapy

15-Feb-2022 - Following surgery, patients with breast cancer are faced with the question of whether additional chemotherapy is necessary and really effective. It is important that these women do not receive too much treatment – but not too little treatment either. Physicists from Leipzig University modelled ...

Insights into the cellular and molecular changes in male infertility

14-Sep-2021 - “You can’t see the wood for the trees” is a phrase which we certainly don’t associate immediately with the medical examination and analysis of testicles. But in a certain way it applies here, too: testicles consist of many different types of cells, and up to now this complex quality prevented ...

What social distancing does to a brain

Have you recently wondered how social-distancing and self-isolation may be affecting your brain?

04-Dec-2020 - An international research team led by Erin Schuman from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research discovered a brain molecule that functions as a “thermometer” for the presence of others in an animal’s environment. Zebrafish “feel” the presence of others via mechanosensation and water movements ...