Press Releases

For a long time, cancer researchers have dreamt of fighting tumours by mobilizing the body’s own...

For the last 100 years it has been believed that the immune system plays a crucial role in the fight against cancer. Although scientists have gained fascinating new insights into how the immune system works, it is still not clearly understood how effectively this highly complex defense system of the body fights off cancer. Scientists have detected a number of different proteins and their respective genes which are able to activate immune cells against tumour cells. Among them are proteins called cytokines. They act as messengers among cells of the immune system and help to coordinate their actions. Moreover, some of these molecules even possess the capability to inhibit tumour growth. Therefore, scientists and clinicians have attempted to utilize the potential of cytokines to boost the immune system and thus increase its efficacy against tumours. Their goal is to develop tumour vaccines. "Animal experiments, as well as a number of clinical trials with cancer patients, have shown some encouraging results," stated Prof. Guido Forni from the University of Turin (Italy). "However, there is still a long way to go," he pointed out at the 4th Symposium on Gene Therapy (April 19, 1996) at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch. He is convinced that "more basic research is needed and, in the future, tumour vaccines should be used in patients with less advanced disease".

ADA-deficiency is a rare inherited disease that impairs certain cells of the immune system (T and B...

Cancer is a disease which has many different faces with respect to its causes and to the biochemical...

4th German Gene Therapy Symposium in Berlin

At first glance, leptin (which is the greek word for "slim") seems to be a magic substance against...

Zur Hausen pointed out that more than 77 different types of papillomaviruses are known today and...

Cells normally possess a molecular glue (adhesion molecules) which keeps them together via specific junctions. Cancer cells seem to have lost this "molecular glue" which allows them to travel to other tissues to form metastases, the life threatening off shoots of cancer cells. In recent years, molecular and cell biologist have discovered various molecular structures that play a crucial role in this cell adhesion and other molecules which are associated with the development of metastasis. In addition, tumour suppressor genes have been identified which prevent cells from being transformed into cancer cells. They also participate in setting up cell junctions. On the other hand, oncogenes - genes that have been genetically altered and are able to induce cancerogenesis - destabilize cell junctions. These new findings suggest that tumour suppressor gene products also seem to play an important role in controlling invasive processes and the development of metastasis, cell biologist Walter Birchmeier, Professor at the MAX DELBRÜCK CENTER FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE (MDC) BERLIN-BUCH, told an audience of more than 200 scientists at a meeting on "Complex Genetic Diseases" at the MDC in Berlin-Buch.

In France, there has never been national policy of human genome research. Instead, the Nobel Prize winner Jean Dausset and Daniel Cohen, at that time Dausset's assistant, started their own, privately financed project by founding the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humaine (CEPH) in 1982. They set up an extensive collection of genetic material (DNA) from families with several members which may be used free of charge by genecists from all over the world.

Jean Weissenbach: Disease gene research would profit from coordinating strategies