News
2024
Organoids - three-dimensional miniature models of organs - are less than a millimetre in size. Ideally, they should be able to replicate the functions of their larger counterparts. An interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Dr. von Haunerschen Children's Hospital of the LMU has now succeeded in constructing human bone marrow organoids. "We believe that this technology could prove useful in many ways - from modelling congenital and acquired bone marrow diseases to the biotechnological production of blood cells," says Professor Christoph Klein, Director of the LMU Children's Hospital and Children's Polyclinic. In the journal Nature Methods, the team has described in detail their innovative method for generating these complex human bone marrow organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells.
More information:
Publication
Frenz-Wiessner et al., Generation of complex bone marrow organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells, 2024, Nature Methods.
2023
November
Professor Dr. Christoph Klein (Director of the Children's Hospital and Children's Polyclinic at the Dr. von Haunerschen Children's Hospital at the LMU Munich) is also one of the most cited researchers in the field of "Immunology" in 2023.
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March
The European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) has honoured Daniel Kotlarz with the ECCO Pioneer Award for his outstanding research in the field of rare, early-onset inflammatory bowel disease (VEO-IBD). The award is worth €300,000 and is given annually to visionary, innovative and interdisciplinary scientists in the field of inflammatory bowel diseases.
Daniel Kotlarz is a clinician-scientist at the Dr. von Haunerschen Children's Hospital of the LMU and his research aims to investigate the causes of disease in patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease in early childhood in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of these patients in the long term.
Children with early childhood inflammatory bowel disease often have severe disease that does not respond to conventional treatments. Daniel Kotlarz's translational research has already made a significant contribution to the understanding of the genetic causes of childhood inflammatory bowel disease and has optimised treatment for many children. However, currently the majority of patients cannot be genetically diagnosed and the underlying causes of the disease remain unclear.
The aim of the ECCO Pioneer Award is to complement genome sequencing with the innovative application of multimodal gene expression analysis of complex intestinal tissue at the level of individual cells. The aim is to identify previously unknown molecular disease mechanisms, biomarkers and therapeutic targets for early childhood chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
2022
November
Sarah Kim-Hellmuth, head of the Kim-Hellmuth Lab, and Ilse Sturkenboom, professor of Islamic art history, will each receive 1.5 million euros for their projects. The ERC grants are awarded on the basis of the scientific excellence of the applicants and the proposed project, and are among the most prestigious research grants in Europe.