New mechanism: How cancer cells escape the immune system

08-Nov-2024 - An international team led by Goethe University Frankfurt has identified an intracellular sensor that monitors the quality of so-called MHC-I molecules, which help the immune system recognize and kill harmful cells, including tumor cells. The sensor ensures that defective MHC-I molecules remain ...

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 ...

Andrea Ablasser, Glen Barber, and Zhijian J. Chen will be awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2025

Award recognizes the discovery of a fundamental signaling pathway of innate immunity

19-Sep-2024 - Physician Andrea Ablasser, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, virologist Glen Barber, Ohio State University, and biochemist Zhijian ‘James’ Chen, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, will receive the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2025, the Scientific ...

Neurobiology: Washing machine for the brain

08-Aug-2024 - Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of California in San Diego have used microscopic techniques to show for the first time that the blood vessels entering the brain pulsate independently of the heartbeat and brain activity. The waves traveling through the brain may not ...

Derivatives of the thalidomide compound drive resistant cancer cells to their deaths

For the past few decades, medicine has once again placed great hope in the active ingredient

15-May-2024 - A study by Goethe University Frankfurt points to the possibility that thalidomide derivatives are potentially suitable for treating cancer. Thalidomide was marketed in the 1950s as a sleeping pill. It later gained sad notoriety for causing severe fetal abnormalities in the early stages of ...

mRNA therapeutic successfully combats ovarian cancer

The mRNA therapeutic successfully combated cancerous cells and tumors in vitro as well as metastases in mice

25-Jan-2024 - Ovarian cancer is often very aggressive and responds poorly to the therapies currently available. A recent study by Goethe University Frankfurt and University Hospital Frankfurt offers hope that this could change in the medium term. The researchers used an mRNA as a therapeutic. With its help, ...

Prepared for the next virus pandemic

13 institutions from 6 countries set up European research platform

11-Jan-2024 - In collaboration with 12 partners from 6 countries, Jena University Hospital is establishing the Antivirus Pandemic Preparedness EuropeAn pLatform (APPEAL), a European research initiative aimed at enhancing preparedness for future pandemics. This EU funded collaboration will establish a ...

Leukemia cells activate cellular recycling program

The findings open up new therapeutic options for the future

08-Dec-2023 - To speed up their growth, leukemia cells typically activate the recycling of cellular structures – enabling them to dispose of defective components and better supply themselves with building materials. Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt have now shown that leukemia cells with a very ...

Pediatric oncology: Scientists discover new Achilles heel of leukemia cells

New, unforeseen possibility in the fight against blood cancer

22-Nov-2023 - Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children. Treatment involves intensive chemotherapy, which has severe side effects due to its non-specific mode of action. A team from the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute for Experimental Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Goethe ...

Researchers develop “time machine for biodiversity”

AI shows species decline in a swimming lake

21-Nov-2023 - An AI model developed by a team of scientists from Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Birmingham, led by Niamh Eastwood and Prof. Luisa Orsini, shows how water pollution, extreme weather events and rising temperatures can change and irreversibly damage the ecosystem of a freshwater ...