A systems medicine network

e:Med

e:Medium Newsletter #7

The new e:MedIUM newsletter #7 is here!

Read about chemoresistance in lung cancer, the pathomechanism of schizophrenia, the connection between tryptophan and chronic diseases, cellular proliferation heterogeneity or new treatment options in melanoma therapy. 

Stay curious and enjoy reading!

e:Med

e:Med Meeting on Systems Medicine, Hamburg

You are cordially invited to the 10th e:Med Meeting on Systems Medicine, 21 - 23 November 2024 at the Helmut-Schmidt-Auditorium of the Bucerius Law School, Hamburg. Come to this particularly future-oriented e:Med meeting at a fantastic location in the cosmopolitan city of Hamburg. Registration and Abstract Submission are open.

How AI is helping to bridge the research gap between animals and humans

Understanding human diseases with the help of animal models is a central challenge in medical research, known as the "translational gap". In a collaboration between e:Med researchers from IMISE, Leipzig University and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, have developed an AI-based model that significantly improves the transferability of animal COVID-19 data to humans. The work has now been published in the journal "The Lancet -eBioMedicine".

Junior Research Alliances

When is the best time of day for cancer treatment?

Can the time of day at which a cancer therapy is administered optimize its effectiveness? e:Med researchers led by Dr. Adrián Granada, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, show that the internal clock of cancer cells is a gap in their system that can be used therapeutically to maximize the effect of chemotherapy. The scientists used breast cancer cells to identify time windows in which the administration of drugs was particularly effective. This novel approach is a further building block in personalized cancer therapy, as it can improve treatment outcomes while minimizing side effects. The work has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Demonstrators

e:Med Scientist Silke Szymczak receives Dorothea Erxleben Female Investigator Award 

Silke Szymczak, leader of the e:Med junior research alliance ComorbSysMed and subproject leader in demonstrator GUIDE-IBD, received the Dorothea Erxleben Female Investigator Award for her outstanding research. The scientist is working on machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, to develop and to evaluate integrative prediction models based on clinical, genetic and other molecular data. Her methodological research results will be applied to different use cases including the prediction of therapy response in patients with Ulcerative colitis.

Research Alliances

e:Med scientists receive prestigious German Cancer Aid Award

The prestigious German Cancer Aid Award 2023 is now granted to e:Med scientists Professor Dr. Roman Thomas, Professor Dr. Reinhard Büttner and Professor Dr. Jürgen Wolf, Cologne. The prize honors their outstanding work in the field of lung cancer diagnostics and therapy - in particular within the interdisciplinary "National Network Genomic Medicine (nNGM) - Lung Cancer", which they initiated. Their work enables patients with advanced lung cancer throughout Germany to receive personalized treatment tailored to their needs. They have founded this success with the e:Med networks SMOOSE and InCa.

Project groups

Online Seminar: Modeling approaches for disease processes

Online Seminar Series (Zoom) “Modelling approaches for disease processes” organized by the e:Med project group Modeling of Disease Processes. 
Upcoming Seminar: Chengzhe Tian, (University of Stuttgart)
March 6, 2024 - 2 pm (CET)

Alliances

New sex-specific genetic variants for chronic kidney disease identified

e:Med alliance SYMPATH, led by Prof. Dr. Markus Scholz, Leipzig University, has discovered genes that may be involved in chronic kidney disease, as now published with an international consortium. Analyzing data from 900,000 individuals, they detected sex-sensitive genetic effects influencing the risk and progression of chronic kidney disease differentially in women and men. These findings serve as a base for further research into suitable specific treatment. 

e:med

Discovering the future of medicine

Science you can touch - is it popular? More than 400 young people and 60 researchers met at EXPLORE Precision Medicine in Berlin. The result: an exciting event full of new impressions - science inspires!

e:Med

Explore Precision Medicine

A huge thank you to our committed scientists and to all interested participants at the EXPLOREPrecisionMedicine event at Futurium! With your enthusiasm, your commitment and your curiosity, you made this event possible and great, and made personalized medicine come alive! Over 400 schoolchildren, students and interested citizens attended EXPLORE Precision Medicine in the Futurium on October 9th! Over 60 scientists presented their research in a variety of ways and inspired the participants.

e:Med

e:Med Meeting 2023 on Systems Medicine

The e:Med Meeting 2023 took place October 10-11, 2023 at the Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus, Berlin. Over 150 Scientist joint the meeting to discuss their latest research results with fellow scientist from the systems medicine community. We thank all participants, speaker, presenters and helpers for this inspiring meeting. See you next year!

Junior research alliance

Differentiation landscape of acute myeloid leukemia charted with new tool

CloneTracer analyzes tumor evolution from single cell data: Researchers from the e:Med junior research alliance LeukoSyStem have developed a new method to distinguish between cancerous and healthy stem cells and progenitor cells from samples of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a disease driven by malignant blood stem cells that have historically been difficult to identify. The findings, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, pave the way for the development of new techniques to predict whether patients will respond to chemotherapy.

e:Med

e:MedIUM Newsletter #6

The latest e:MedIUM Newsletter #6 is out! Read here about bioinformatics tools for drug repurposing, simulating vaccinations, regulatory mechanisms of neurons, and improvements in leukemia diagnostics.
Stay curious and enjoy reading!

e:Med

e:Med Meeting 2022 on Systems Medicine November 28-30, 2022 Heidelberg, DKFZ

The e:Med Meeting 2022 took place November 28-30, 2022 at DKFZ Communication Center in Heidelberg. Over 230 scientists joint the on-site meeting to discuss your latest research results with fellow scientist from the systems medicine community. We thank all participants, speakers, presenters and helpers for this inspiring meeting. See you next year in Berlin!

Junior research alliances

scOpen untangles kidney fibrosis

scATAC-seq allows the examination of accessible DNA regions in single cells. However, the nature of the experimental protocol makes it difficult to reliably analyze and interpret the data. Researchers from the e:Med junior research alliance Fibromap have developed the scOpen tool to analyze these single-cell data in more detail. Their tool leads to a better understanding of renal fibrosis and uncovered a previously unknown role of the Runx1 gene in the progression of this disease.

Junior research alliances

Novel protective mechanism for blood stem cells

Blood stem cells from the bone marrow produce blood and immune cells. Errors that occur in the genome during division are inherited by the daughter stem cells and can ultimately lead to blood cancer. Using gene expression analysis and single-cell technologies, the team of the e:Med junior research alliance LeukoSyStem has discovered a protective mechanism that renders degenerate stem cells harmless. The results were published in Cell Stem Cell.

Junior research alliances

Telltales of depression in our blood

Depression is a major cause of disability worldwide. Due to its complex nature, it is difficult to explain the molecular pathways associated with depression by examining the genetic factors. e:Med junior research alliance CKDNapp chose a metabolomics approach to tackle this problem. The results of their population-wide screen for metabolites revealed laurylcarnitine to be associated with depression. This metabolite is involved in the fatty acid oxidation pathway and may provide new therapy options against depression.

e:Med project groups - overlapping issues in focus

Scientists discuss new technologies and latest scientific contents and launch comprehensive initiatives in four e:Med project groups (PG) regarding substantially and methodologically overlapping systems medicine issues. The objective of the PG is to promote interactions between members and handle relevant issues across the research group.