A therapeutic approach pioneered in Mainz for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) is taking an important step toward clinical application. The team led by Professor Claire Jacob at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is further developing a drug patch that could promote the repair of damaged myelin sheaths. ForTra gGmbH for Research Transfer (ForTra), a subsidiary of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, is supporting the project with EUR 1.1 million. The aim is to further develop the patch for production according to pharmaceutical quality standards and subsequently assess its safety and tolerability in an initial clinical trial.

A new study published in Biomedical Analysis reports a protein-coated nanoparticle platform that combines the powerful light-to-heat conversion ability of copper sulfide with the biological compatibility of albumin, offering a potential strategy for safer photothermal cancer therapy.

Twin studies place the heritability of schizophrenia near eighty percent, but concordance between monozygotic twins falls well short of fifty percent. What occupies the remaining distance is unresolved. Consuelo Walss-Bass, who directs the Psychiatric Genetics Program and the brain collection at UTHealth Houston, approaches the problem through transcriptomic and epigenetic profiling of donated brain tissue and through induced pluripotent stem cell models derived from families with multiple affected siblings. She also grew up with the question: her mother had schizophrenia, and of five children raised afterward in Torreón, Mexico, one received the same diagnosis. Why My Sister? sets the two accounts alongside each other.