"Forschungspotenzial muss sich entfalten können" : Prof. Dr. Günther Wess im Gespräch mit Dr. Monika Mölders über Wissenschaft im internationalen Wettbewerb

Fachliche Exzellenz und Bildungsnotstand – diese beiden Extreme beherrschen gegenwärtig die Diskussion um Schul- und Hochschulausbildung. Die Universität Frankfurt stellt sich der Elitediskussion und setzt auf Fokussierung und Schwerpunktbildung. Studiengänge werden modifiziert, die Art und Vielfalt möglicher Abschlüsse internationalen Standards angepasst. Die Universität will und wird wettbewerbsfähig sein, auch im internationalen Vergleich. Darüber sprach Dr. Monika Mölders mit Prof. Dr. Günther Wess, Honorarprofessor der Universität Frankfurt, Forschungsleiter Europa von Aventis und Mitglied der Geschäftsführung der Aventis Pharma Deutschland GmbH

Virtual communities as an organizational mechanism for embedding knowledge in drug discovery:the case of chemical biology plattform

In this paper, we document the lessons from the development of chemical biology platform in a major pharmaceutical company, and the outcomes of the early phases of this experiment. Although the concept of chemical biology is not new, its evolution and deployment in the drug development process is relatively new. The present experiment thus has to deal with both the scientific novelty of chemical biology, and organizational challenge of embedding it in the ongoing process of drug development. The notion of virtual communities or platforms overlaid on the traditional matrix of drug development served to introduce the approach, with some remarkable outcomes

Biotechnologie-Kommunikation. Kontroversen, Analysen, Aktivitäten

Weitze M-D, Pühler A, Heckl WM, et al., eds. Biotechnologie-Kommunikation. Kontroversen, Analysen, Aktivitäten. acatech DISKUSSION. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Vieweg; 2013.Seit vier Jahrzehnten gibt es Kontroversen und Kommunikationsmaßnahmen zur Grünen Gentechnik und anderen Feldern der Biotechnologie. Dieser Sammelband trägt dazu Analysen der Erfahrungen in kommunikations- und sozialwissenschaftlicher sowie historischer Perspektive zusammen. Im Rahmen eines Projekts von acatech, der Deutschen Akademie der Technikwissenschaften wurden daraus Empfehlungen abgeleitet, wie Biotechnologie künftig sachgerecht, ausgewogen und urteilsunterstützend kommuniziert werden kann

Optogenetic control shows that kinetic proofreading regulates the activity of the T cell receptor

The immune system distinguishes between self and foreign antigens. The kinetic proofreading (KPR) model proposes that T cells discriminate self from foreign ligands by the different ligand binding half-lives to the T cell receptor (TCR). It is challenging to test KPR as the available experimental systems fall short of only altering the binding half-lives and keeping other parameters of the interaction unchanged. We engineered an optogenetic system using the plant photoreceptor phytochrome B (PhyB) as a ligand to selectively control the dynamics of ligand binding to the TCR by light. This opto-ligand-TCR system was combined with the unique property of PhyB to continuously cycle between the binding and non-binding states under red light, with the light intensity determining the cycling rate and thus the binding duration. Mathematical modeling of our experimental datasets showed that indeed the ligand-TCR interaction half-life is the decisive factor for activating downstream TCR signaling, substantiating KPR.</p

Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons at LEP.

The four LEP collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have searched for the neutral Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The data of the four collaborations are statistically combined and examined for their consistency with the background hypothesis and with a possible Higgs boson signal. The combined LEP data show no significant excess of events which would indicate the production of Higgs bosons. The search results are used to set upper bounds on the cross-sections of various Higgs-like event topologies. The results are interpreted within the MSSM in a number of “benchmark” models, including CP-conserving and CP-violating scenarios. These interpretations lead in all cases to large exclusions in the MSSM parameter space. Absolute limits are set on the parameter cosβ and, in some scenarios, on the masses of neutral Higgs bosons