When bones fail to heal – for example after an accident or cancer treatment – bone defects remain, placing a burden on patients as well as society and the economy. “Worldwide, more than four million operations per year require bone grafts or substitutes. At the same time, current treatment options are limited.
Natural killer cells (NK cells) are part of the first line of defense of our immune system. They eliminate virus-infested cells and tumor cells. This makes NK cells interesting helpers in cancer therapy. Professor Dr. Dr. Axel Schambach, head of the Institute of Experimental Haematology at the Hannover Medical School (MHH), wants to genetically modify the immune cells in such a way that they detect and destroy the tumor cells even more reliably.
Medicines that are injected must be continuously tested for impurities as part of their production and release, as these can cause fever or even blood poisoning. Until now, this has mostly been done using animal tests, animal products or the so-called monocyte activation test (MAT).
There are various reasons why people suffer hearing loss. In the case of so-called sensoneural hearing loss (SNHL), congenital changes in the genetic material usually play a role. It is one of the most common genetic disorders of the sensory organs and affects more than 430 million people worldwide.
About three million people in the European Union are affected by cancer. For 1.34 million of them, the disease is fatal. However, around 40 percent of cancer cases could be prevented through effective prevention strategies such as a healthier lifestyle and early detection.
Chronic heart failure – also known as cardiac insufficiency in medicine – is the most common reason for hospital admissions and one of the most frequent causes of death in the western world. In Germany alone, four million people suffer from this disease. Often a heart attack precedes, as a consequence the heart muscle is no longer supplied with blood and thus oxygen and the organ is irrevocably damaged.