Press

The SYNTHIA project, a groundbreaking public-private partnership funded by the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), is set to revolutionize the field of personalized medicine by harnessing the power of synthetic data. As the first IHI project to tackle the critical need for privacy-preserving data solutions in healthcare, SYNTHIA aims to propel research and innovation to new heights, ensuring that patients receive the best possible care while safeguarding their personal information.

It is known that malfunctions of the proteins FLVCR1 and FLVCR2 lead to rare hereditary diseases in humans that cause motor, sensory and neurological disorders. However, the biochemical mechanisms behind this and the physiological functions of the FLVCR proteins have been unclear to date. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Frankfurt am Main, Singapore and the USA has now deciphered the FLVCR proteins’ 3D structures and their cellular functions. The researchers have shown that the proteins transport the cellular building blocks choline and ethanolamine. Their findings contribute significantly to understanding the pathogenesis of rare diseases and developing new therapies.

The newly formed IDERHA consortium, consisting of academia, industry, health authorities, clinicians, and patient representatives, addresses the obstacles in accessing, integrating and analysing health data to maximize their value for patient care and research. Focusing on lung cancer, IDERHA wants to use complex digital health data to improve patient health outcomes by enabling more personalized care.

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a disease resulting in swelling of one or more parts of the body in the absence of a specific trigger. If the condition occurs in the upper respiratory tract, a so-called HAE attack ensues which can be life threatening. To date, the therapies to treat HAE are in form of injections and infusions. In a Phase 2 study involving the Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Fraunhofer ITMP, it has now been shown for the first time that an orally administered drug can also treat HAE. This therapy has the potential to overcome the issues relating the complicated route of administration for injections as well reduced cost.

The EU-funded project REMEDi4ALL willl make a major leap forward in drug repurposing, or finding new therapeutic option for existing drugs, in areas where there are high unmet medical needs. The 3 Fraunhofer institutes participating, Fraunhofer ITMP, Fraunhofer IZI and Fraunhofer SCAI, combine expertise in the realization of in-silico and in-vitro driven drug repurposing programs, the design of predictive in vivo models, the execution of clinical trials and algorithm development for the analysis of drug discovery data.

The AIOLOS project (Artificial Intelligence Tools for Outbreak Detection and Response) has received approval from the French and German governments to develop a digital platform designed to allow for early detection of new respiratory pathogens epidemics, monitor their spread and inform decisions on appropriate counter measures. AIOLOS will provide insights for private and public decision-making in a web-based dashboard, which leverages real-time data from multiple data sources, advanced artificial intelligence (AI), and predictive modeling. Sanofi in France and the Fraunhofer Institutes SCAI and ITMP in Germany lead the consortium, which includes four other French and German partners: CompuGroup Medical, Quinten Health, Impact Healthcare and umlaut, part of Accenture. The project is supported by the French State and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in the context of the Franco-German call on Artificial Intelligence technologies for risk prevention, crisis management and resilience. This call for projects operated by Bpifrance, on behalf of the French government as part of the France 2030 investment plan, and by DLR Projektträger, aims to support innovation projects between France and Germany on artificial intelligence technologies.

Neurological complications associated with COVID-19 have been observed frequently. Although SARS-CoV-2 may be abundant in brain tissue of patients, its pathways of entry and the resulting consequences are not well understood. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) has now shown that cells of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) can be infected in vitro by the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen. The BBB is an important interface between the peripheral vasculature and the central nervous system. In addition, a test system based on human pluripotent stem cells has been developed to screen therapeutics for their effectiveness in attenuating this infection. The study results were published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria suffer from regularly recurring itchy wheals that appear on the skin with no clear cause. Frequently, additional swelling occurs in the facial area, so-called angioedema, which can persist for one to two days. Unfortunately, standard therapy with antihistamines is not efficacious in many patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria. However, these patients can now draw hope as a new drug yields promising results in a clinical trial involving Fraunhofer ITMP.

In August 2021, after several years of research at Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, a team of scientists has spun-off and created Phialogics, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the development of innovative biologics to treat autoimmune diseases.