Good News 2022 from medicine - innovations from Central Germany

"Oscar of Science" and Nobel Prize: Saxony's Max Planck Institutes compete 

With the DFB Cup, RB Leipzig brought the first national football title to Saxony in 2022 – but the Max Planck Institute took home the even more important title this year. Firstly, Prof Svante Päbo was awarded the Nobel Prize. Born in Sweden, he has been Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig since 1997. In October, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his decades of research in the field of human DNA.

With slightly less media coverage, a no less important prize went to Prof Anthony Hyman, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. Together with his colleague, he received the "Breakthrough Prize 2023" in Life Sciences. The prize is considered the "Oscar of science" and, at three million dollars, is the most highly endowed science prize in the world. Hyman received the award for the description of membraneless liquid droplets - similar to oil droplets in water - which play a role in numerous cellular processes, for example in cellular signalling, cell division and the regulation of DNA. Their discovery is a fundamental advance in understanding cellular organisation and is expected to have clinical applications in the future, for example in neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, an incurable degenerative disease of the motor nervous system that causes spastic paralysis and increasing muscle wasting.

Insect protection from the 3D printer

Summertime is mosquito season, no barbecue without the pests, which are not only annoying but can also be dangerous carriers of malaria, West Nile or Zika viruses - and that could soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have now used a 3D printer to develop a ring that can be worn on the finger.

The ring consists of a polymer into which the insect repellent "IR3535" is integrated. The agent is also the basis of many popular mosquito sprays. The principle works as follows: The polymer releases the insect repellent continuously. At a body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius, the protective agent lasts significantly longer than a week as it slowly evaporates. This turns jewellery on the finger into a portable insect repellent that keeps annoying mosquitoes away.

Do cancer cells die when a receptor is switched off? 

One of mankind's major goals is to defeat cancer. Countless research projects are underway worldwide. A major step in this direction may now have been taken in Leipzig. One of the ways in which cancer cells differ from normal cells is that they grow uncontrollably and much faster. This has an impact on their metabolism, which regulates the cells' high energy requirements.

Scientists at the Faculty of Medicine at Leipzig University have discovered that cancer cells require the so-called succinate receptor to control the turnover of their metabolism. If this receptor is missing, the cancer cells die because they lose control of the metabolic processes, as the researchers were able to prove. The succinate receptor now represents a possible target for the development of new drugs. To this end, the inhibitors of the receptor must now be identified in further research work. If this is successful, it could lead to a breakthrough in cancer therapy.

  "Dr Hightech" waistcoat monitors lung function

IKTS – stands for the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems with offices in Dresden and Hermsdorf (Thuringia) as well as a branch in Berlin. Developers at IKTS have now invented a waistcoat that monitors the lung function of patients. The high-tech wearable now does what the doctor normally has to do with a stethoscope. The waistcoat is specially designed for patients who suffer from severe respiratory and lung diseases and who are dependent on intensive treatment and constant monitoring of their lung functions.

"Pneumo.Vest" is the name of the technology that uses acoustic sensors to detect lung sounds. The patient simply has to wear the textile waistcoat. Software then converts the signals into a visual display. This means that patients can also be monitored and their values checked without a mask outside of intensive care units. The technology expands diagnostic options for doctors and improves the quality of life of those affected. Initial tests with staff at the Department of Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Magdeburg have been positive. Intensive care physicians are also hoping for permanent relief for hospital staff.

Mathematics and medicine go hand in hand in cancer therapy

In the fight against cancer, interdisciplinary work is becoming more and more common – scientists from different disciplines are joining forces. At Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, for example. Professor of mathematics Sebastian Sager had an idea there: "As a mathematician, I asked myself why the principle of dynamic systems is not also applied in medicine - in other words, why the interplay of influence and effect is not taken into account during treatment," says Prof Sager. "We all know the principle of rocking: The time when we give the swing a push has an influence on how well it swings. This is ultimately no different with chemotherapy." This is why scientists working with Prof. Sager have developed a computer model that will allow leukaemia patients to be treated much more gently and individually in future.

The programme works like this: A patient's digital twin is created from their patient data and a virtual study is carried out on them. Various treatment methods are simulated under identical conditions in order to calculate the best time to start therapy, the duration of treatment and dosage for the patient using mathematical models. This calculation should then make it easier for doctors to plan the therapy for patients as individually as possible and in the best possible way. Research into this is in full swing.

2023 will continue with the "Good News"

These five innovations from Central Germany are examples of the many other advances made in the field of medicine in 2022. And the research continues. We, the "Hauptsache Gesund" team, will once again be able to provide many positive reports from the field of medicine and health next year. Until then, we wish you a good end to the year and wish you: "The main thing is to stay healthy!"

Source: Hauptsache Gesund, mdr, from 19 December 2022