A new drug target for psychiatric disorders

11-Sep-2024 - Misha Kudryashev’s lab at the Max Delbrück Center has identified a molecular intermediate of a serotonin receptor that is involved in diseases such as depression and schizophrenia. The study points to a potentially new target for therapeutics. A new study published in “The EMBO Journal” points ...

Antimicrobial agents of the future

Researchers conducted the first systematic study of CRISPR-based antibiotics in Klebsiella pneumoniae

29-Apr-2024 - The antimicrobial potential of CRISPR-Cas systems is promising, yet how to best design or implement CRISPR nucleases remains poorly understood. An international team led by the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg has now addressed this knowledge gap. The ...

Analysis of single plant cells provides insights into natural product biosynthesis

Single-cell multi-omics reveals that cell types are differentially involved in the production and accumulation of medically relevant plant compounds

19-May-2023 - In a new study published in Nature Chemical Biology, an international team of researchers from the University of Georgia, USA, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, presents a promising strategy for elucidating metabolic pathways for plant compounds of medicinal ...

Drug diversity in bacteria

Researchers decode mechanism for diversifying bioactive phenazines

26-Mar-2019 - Bacteria produce a cocktail of various bioactive natural products in order to survive in hostile environments with competing (micro)organisms. In the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology, researchers at Goethe University demonstrate that they do so by modifying basic structures, similar to ...

Faster characterization of organic salts

27-Mar-2018 - UZH researchers have developed a novel method that speeds up the process of determining crystal structures of organic salts and significantly reduces the effort required to do so. As about 40 percent of all active pharmaceutical ingredients are salts, this new crystallographic method is set to ...

Drug or duplicate?

Quantum cascade lasers can reliably detect a substance‘s »fingerprint«

26-Mar-2018 - Imagine holding two different medications in your hands, one being the original, the other one being a counterfeit. Both appear exactly the same. Is there any way for you to distinguish them? The answer is: yes. Our quantum cascade laser (QCL) has the ability to identify substances in a split ...

Measuring molecular interactions

Previously unknown interactions between proteins and small metabolic molecules discovered

02-Feb-2018 - ETH researchers have used a new approach to discover previously unknown interactions between proteins and small metabolic molecules in bacterial cells. The technique can also be used to test the effect of medications. Science now has a new “omics” – an interactomics, which deals with the ...

Microbial murder mystery solved

10-Nov-2017 - Immune cells called "killer cells" target bacteria invading the body's cells, but how do they do this so effectively? Bacteria can quickly evolve resistance against antibiotics, yet it seems they have not so readily been able to evade killer cells. This has caused researchers to become interested ...

Adjustment of drug dose for rheumatoid arthritis by diagnostic method

Determination of the therapeutic window of adalimumab

06-Oct-2017 - Collaboration between the Immanuel Klinikum Bernau Herzzentrum Brandenburg, the Rheumazentrum Nord-Brandenburg and BioTeZ demonstrates new ways of treating rheumatoid arthritis. Through the introduction of therapeutic antibodies, the treatment results for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been ...

Merck opens production facility exclusively for meglumine in Spain

The only facility in Europe solely dedicated to meglumine production

19-Jan-2017 - Merck announced the opening of a facility in Mollet des Vallès, Spain dedicated to the manufacture of meglumine, an FDA-approved excipient for pharmaceuticals and a component of medical imaging contrast media.The facility, validated by the FDA, is the only location in Europe that manufactures ...