Technical University of Munich: News

Pancreatic carcinoma is a tumor with an extremely poor prognosis for which effective treatments have not yet been found. In a preclinical animal model with mice, a team of researchers has now discovered a way of making pancreatic tumors treatable with immunotherapy methods using a targeted combination of two cancer drugs. The researchers believe that the promising combined approach could also prove effective with other cancer types.

By today’s signing of their cooperation agreement, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the University of Augsburg (UNIA) and the Munich School of Philosophy (HFPH) have laid the foundation stone for the joint “Center for Responsible AI Technologies”, which will bring philosophical, ethical and social science issues into the development of AI technologies in an integrated approach to research.

Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is becoming increasingly widespread. Until now, however, the underlying causes of the inflammation responses were unclear. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now identified a mechanism that triggers a problematic interaction between intestinal bacteria and cells in the intestinal mucus layer in XLP2, a condition associated with IBD. The team believes that the results can be applied to other intestinal diseases and could offer approaches to the development of new drugs.

The immune system develops a high-quality antibody response after three encounters with the coronavirus spike protein. These antibodies are also capable of neutralizing Omicron efficiently. This applies to people who are triple-vaccinated, to those having recovered and then received two vaccinations and to double-vaccinated individuals who have experienced a breakthrough infection. These are results of a study which tracked the antibodies of vaccinated and recovered individuals for two years.

The TUM robot GARMI, actually developed to care for elderly people, had a very special assignment this weekend: The autonomous service humanoid presented trophies to the winners at the Women’s Ski World Cup awards ceremony in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Algae have created the basis for our life on earth. Given the current problems, could they help us again? In her documentation, editor Jenny von Sperber visits, among others, Prof. Brück at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). He conducts research on algae at the Werner Siemens Chair in Synthetic Biotechnology. The documentary presents some of his ideas.

As one of the founding institutions, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is making crucial contributions to the development of Munich Quantum Valley. The goal is to develop and build quantum computers and to make them available for scientific applications, together with other partners from science and industry in the spirit of a ONE MUNICH strategy and with the help of generous government funding.

Protected areas are among the most effective tools for preserving biodiversity. However, new protected areas are often created without considering existing ones. This can lead to an overrepresentation of the biophysical characteristics, such as temperature or topography, that define a certain area. A research group at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now assessed a global analysis of the scope of protection of various biophysical conditions.