Risk of serious COVID-19 infection can now be predicted

Researchers develop rapid test for severe infections

30-Nov-2023 - Researchers have developed a method for assessing the number and structure of aggregated blood platelets (or thrombocytes) that can potentially help quantify the risk of a severe COVID-19 infection. As a result, they have identified a predictive biomarker for the seriousness of a COVID-19 ...

Electron microscopy: Nano-reporter proteins make invisible processes visible

Genetically encoded nano-barcodes

19-Apr-2023 - How do the nerve cells in our brain communicate with each other? What processes take place when T cells render cancer cells harmless? Details of the mechanisms at the cellular level remain hidden from view. Now, special reporter proteins developed by a research team led by the Technical ...

Messengers from gut to brain

Seen for the first time: T cells traveling from the gut and skin to the central nervous system

09-Sep-2021 - Scientists have long been aware of a link between the gut microbiome and the central nervous system (CNS). Until now, however, the immune cells that move from the gut into the CNS and thus the brain had not been identified. A team of researchers in Munich has now succeeded in using violet light ...

The Cut and Restore Protein Trick: Self-Excising Designer Proteins Report Isoform Expression

07-Jun-2021 - Our proteome is much bigger than our genome because one gene produces several variants of proteins called protein isoforms, whose disbalance is implicated in many diseases. A new bioengineered reporter system developed at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich now allows ...

Labeling proteins with ubiquitin paves new road to cell regulation research

Tipping the scales

04-Apr-2019 - Human cells have a sophisticated regulatory system at their disposal: labeling proteins with the small molecule ubiquitin. In a first, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has succeeded in marking proteins with ubiquitin in a targeted manner, in test tubes as well as in living ...

In the beginning was the phase separation

Was a simple mechanism decisive for the origin of life?

25-May-2018 - The question of the origin of life remains one of the oldest unanswered scientific questions. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now shown for the first time that phase separation is an extremely efficient way of controlling the selection of chemical building blocks and ...

Brown adipose tissue made transparent

14-Mar-2018 - Brown adipose tissue has played a key role in prevention research since its presence was first documented in adults. However, there was no non-invasive method of measuring its heat generation. A team at the Technical University Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München has now succeeded in ...

Watching myelin patterns form

First-ever “live” observation of formation and repair of myelin sheaths around nerve fibers

16-Feb-2018 - Nerve fibers are surrounded by a myelin sheath. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now made the first-ever “live” observations of how this protective layer is formed. The team discovered that the characteristic patterns of the myelin layer are determined at an early ...

Visible signals from brain and heart

New sensor measures calcium concentrations deep inside tissue

01-Dec-2017 - Key processes in the body are controlled by the concentration of calcium in and around cells. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München have developed the first sensor molecule that is able to visualize calcium in living animals with the help of a ...

DNA dominos on a chip

Carriers of genetic information packed together on a biochip like in nature

11-Aug-2016 - Normally, individual molecules of genetic material repel each other. However, when space is limited DNA molecules must be packed together more tightly. This case arises in sperm, cell nuclei and the protein shells of viruses. An international team of physicists has now succeeded in artificially ...