Researchers from the Berlin Max Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics led by Markus Ralser have developed a reliable and easy to handle method for analysing proteins in a mass spectrometer. They use an especially sensitive triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled to a high pressure liquid chromatograph.

In a collaborative research project, scientists from the University Hospital Erlangen under the direction of Prof. Dr. med. Jürgen Winkler in the Department of Molecular Neurology, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies under Fred Gage and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla aim to use stem cells and immune cells to find out what part inflammation processes play in Parkinson’s disease.

By screening red blood cell proteins in a protein database (ARVEXIS), Gavin Wright and his team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, have identified a receptor-ligand pair which is of fundamental significance regarding the invasion of human red blood cells by Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria pathogen.

Between the 3rd and 4th of November 2011, more than twenty participants from university medical faculties, science and technology institutes, companies and government bodies took part in the first Cultex workshop in Hannover, Germany, devoted to current inhalation toxicity issues.