Cell therapies are fundamentally changing medicine: instead of chemical substances, living cells are used that actively perform tasks in the body.
These “living drugs” open up new ways to treat tumors, chronic infections, and autoimmune diseases.
Contributions to issue 2/2025:
- “IMACS INSTEAD OF ANTIBIOTICS?”: Researchers at the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) are working on a therapy using immune cells, called macrophages, to treat pneumonia.
- “RETHINKING SCHIZOPHRENIA”: The German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) wants to help people with schizophrenia by restoring central brain functions.
- “RIGHT TO THE HEART”: A gene transporter is designed to deliver therapeutic genes directly to the heart. Researchers at the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) hope this will enable targeted treatment of heart failure.
- “WHEN ADOPTED CELLS COME TO THE RESCUE”: The German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) is working on an innovative therapy in which T cells are designed to specifically fight off viruses in order to protect people from infection after transplants.
- “BETA CELLS FROM THE LAB”: The German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) is searching for alternatives to insulin injections: the aim is to stimulate the body's own insulin production in people with diabetes.
- “DOUBLE THE POWER”: Dr. Evelyn Ullrich from the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) wants to destroy tumors and cure cancer with natural killer cells.
- “FROM RARE TO COMMON”: Findings from the treatment of rare diseases can also benefit others, as demonstrated by the work of the German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ).
- “STIMULATION FOR THE BRAIN”: The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) is researching the resilience of the brain.
Read the new issue (in German):
- Online: https://dzg-magazin.de/
- E-Reader: https://dzg-magazin.de/e-reader-ausgabe-2-2025/
- Subscribe to the print edition free of charge: https://dzg-magazin.de/abonnement/
About SYNERGIE:
“Research for Health”: This is the slogan under which the German Centers for Health Research publish the SYNERGIE magazine twice a year and report on projects and successes in translational research.
SYNERGIE – The Magazine of the DZG
About the German Centers for Health Research:
The main aim of the German government’s health research program is to combat particularly common diseases, i.e., widespread diseases, more effectively. By establishing the DZG as long-term, equal partnerships of non-university research institutions with universities and university hospitals, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and the federal states are creating the conditions for reaching this aim.
Several thousand basic researchers, clinical researchers and physicians are working in one of Germany’s largest health research networks to bring medical progress to patients faster – across research disciplines and organizations.
