A real-time view onto the rules of life
Naturally occurring bacteria and viruses are in a constant struggle for existence among each other. Bacteria developed a kind of immune system in order to protect themselves from virus attacks: Special defense enzymes can destroy the viral genetic information (DNA) and at the same time assure that the DNA of the bacterium isn’t attacked. In this process involved are markers on the DNA of the bacteria that are missing in the viruses. Physicists of the Biotechnology Center of the TU Dresden (BIOTEC) were examining in cooperation with scientists from the University of Bristol, how the defense enzymes scan the bacteria DNA for these markers and how they communicate between them in order to start the defense mechanism. They were able to observe for the first time in real-time how the defense enzymes move by means of thermic energy very efficiently between two markers that are located far apart in the genome. The results of this study were published in the magazine Science.
From Cambridge to the Elbe – New Junior Research group leader for biochemistry and cell biology at the BIOTEC
Dr. Jörg Mansfeld enhances the research area cell biology at BIOTEC as the newest junior research group leader. He is interested in the biochemical degradation of proteins that define the cell fate of single cells within an organism. With a funding of the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) of around 1.5 million Euros for five years, the 36 year biologist decided to come to Dresden from the Gurdon Institute of the University of Cambridge.
Photo: Portrait of Dr. Jörg Mansfeld ©Privat
Deutschlandstipendium for Master Students
Three master students of the master’s courses „Molecular Bioengineering“ at the Biotechnology Center of the TU Dresden (BIOTEC) and „Regenerative Biology and Medicine“ at the BIOTEC and CRTD can be happy about a Deutschlandstipendium in 2013. Two students in the first term and one student in the third term receive 300 Euros monthly. Half of the funding is financed by the German government and the other half by private sponsors. For the students at the BIOTEC and the CRTD, the private sponsors are the Bayer Science and Education Foundation, the Schaufler Foundation, and the Association of Friends and Sponsors of TU Dresden e.V. In total, there are 333 scholarships in the framework of the Deutschlandstipendium at the TU Dresden. The funded students have extraordinary previous study achievements and are socially engaged. Already last year, there was a master student at the BIOTEC, who received the funding of the Deutschlandstipendium.
Entity of all yeast proteins collected - System biologists from Dresden provide protein samples for new measuring method
A Swiss-German research cooperation demonstrates the potential of a new method that can measure almost all yeast proteins with high precision. With this method, scientists are able to measure the concentration of 50 to 100 proteins precisely at the same time. That was not possible in this way so far. Prof. Andreas Beyer, system biologist at the BIOTEC, worked together with colleagues from the ETH Zürich at this joint study. He expects that with this new method it is possible to determine parallel and precisely different protein concentration in the blood of patients fast and easy. This study was published in the journal „Nature“. (DOI 10.1038/nature11835)
