Venomous crustacean from Mayan underwater caves provides new drug candidates

08-Oct-2024 - Zootoxins affect a wide range of physiological processes and are therefore of great interest for drug research. An international study led by Björn von Reumont of Goethe University Frankfurt has identified novel toxins from the cave-dwelling underwater crustacean Xibalbanus tulumensis that ...

Assessing the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics to ecosystems

Smaller is not necessarily less toxic

12-Oct-2023 - For most pollutants, there are standard protocols for assessing the risks to ecosystems. Despite the increasing concern about the harmful effects of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs), so far, there exist no harmonised guidelines for testing the ecotoxicity of MNPs. An international research team ...

Where do toxins from tobacco attack DNA?

In the future, this could make it easier than ever to determine the safety of many chemical substances

24-Feb-2023 - It is known that toxins in tobacco smoke can change our DNA – but where exactly in the genome they do this has been a mystery. A new approach developed by researchers at ETH Zurich now brings light into the darkness. In the future, this could make it easier than ever to determine the safety of ...

Using light to switch drugs on and off

Photopharmacology is a new field of medicine that is predicted to have a great future

22-Feb-2023 - Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL and the Swiss Light Source SLS to make a film that could give a decisive boost to developing a new type of drug. They made the advance in the field of so-called photopharmacology, a discipline ...

Controlling the effect of drugs more precisely

International research team from pharmacy and chemistry develops an estrogen that can be switched on and off

28-Oct-2022 - Unwanted side effects in the body, drug resistance or environmentally harmful residues - drugs not only cure diseases or relieve pain, but can also have negative effects on people or the environment. This could be reduced by medical compounds that are only active at the site of an illness in the ...

Unprecedented dynamic-range resolution useful for examining impact of environmental pollutants on cells and tissues

Full-body synchrotron imaging of roundworms reveals nanoparticle accumulation

02-Jun-2022 - Scientists working at DESY’s PETRA III light source have been able to generate the first synchrotron-based X-ray map of the whole body of an organism at such a high resolution that contaminants could be detected at the individual cell level. The research team was able to identify cerium ...

Green chemistry needs more green toxicology

Sustainable bioeconomy: Development of environmentally friendly bio-shampoos and plant protection agent technologies

16-Feb-2022 - With the early assessment of sustainable, newly developed chemicals and products it is possible to assess a potential risk of toxic substances being released at a later point in product cascades. This has been revealed in a proof-of-concept study jointly coordinated by Goethe University Frankfurt ...

Open Innovation on the rise in medical and pharmaceutical research

18-Jan-2021 - The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety has analyzed previously published scientific publications on open innovation in the context of medical and pharmaceutical research. Open innovation (OI) in the context of medical and pharmaceutical research began to appear in the ...

Photopharmacology - A light-trigger for the proteasome

A light-sensitive inhibitor can control cell division and cell death – and provides a promising approach for studies of essential cellular processes and the development of novel tumor therapies

03-Nov-2020 - The ability to precisely control biological and chemical processes is an essential element of both basic research and medicine. Light represents an attractive stimulus in this context, as its effects can be accurately modulated both spatially and temporally. These desirable properties are the ...

Controlling cells with light

Research team develops an active substance that controls an important component of the cytoskeleton with the help of light

19-May-2020 - Photopharmacology investigates the use of light to switch the effect of drugs on and off. Now, for the first time, scientific teams from Jena, Munich, and New York have succeeded in using this method to control a component of cells that was previously considered inaccessible. Present everywhere ...