News

3D molecular syringes

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany

Scientists solve structure of infection tool used by Yersinia

Abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea – these symptoms could point to an infection with the bacterium Yersinia. The bacterium’s pathogenic potential is based on a syringe-like injection apparatus called injectisome. For the first time, an international team of researchers including scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, has unraveled this molecular syringe’s spatial conformation. The researchers were able to demonstrate that the length of Yersinia’s injectisome’s basal body, which crosses the bacterial cell wall, is adjustable – very likely an adaptation to physical stress.

Chemists develop innovative nano-sensors for multiple proteins

Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz

Test strips bearing gold nano-particles as sensor elements can detect numerous proteins simultaneously / New concept with potential applications in medicine, environmental technology, and foodstuff analysis

Discovery of novel gene mutations in leukemia patients opens up personalized therapy options

Neuherberg, August 1, 2013. Specific mutations (N676K) in the FLT3 receptor can contribute to the development of acute myeloid leukemia. The FLT3 receptor regulates cell growth, while activating gene mutations promote the uncontrolled proliferation of white blood cells. These findings were reported in the specialist journal Blood by a group of scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich as part of a clinical research collaboration with the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK). The results provide the basis for the development of new leukemia treatments using specific inhibitors, which block growth signals.

Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a live-cell fluorescent labeling that makes bacterial cell-to-cell communication pathways visible. The communication between bacterial cells is essential in the regulation of processes within bacterial populations, such as biofilm development. The results have been published in the journal «Chemistry – A European Journal».

Alzheimer´s: disease-associated biomarker changes in cerebrospinal fluid of transgenic mice

Hertie-Institut für klinische Hirnforschung (HIH)

Tübingen, Germany – In the current issue of Science Translational Medicine, Luís Maia and Stephan Kaeser from the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases report changes of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that are virtually identical to those seen in pre-clinical AD. The new research suggests that AD in its earliest stage already causes changes in CSF-levels of tau and amyloid-beta and that these changes are both the results of the build-up of the amyloid-beta protein in brain, which is characteristic for the disease.