Category: news

New potential therapeutic approach for HER2-positive breast cancer discovered

March 14, 2023

Resistance to HER2-targeted therapies can be a problem when treating patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer. Therefore, the identification of new therapies for this patient group is important. Researchers at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) have already shown that the enzyme EDI3 is associated with changes in the metabolism of cancer cells. Their most recent results reveal that inhibiting EDI3 may be a new therapeutic target in patients with therapy-resistant ER-HER2+ breast cancer.

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Kuri Takahashi receives International Brain Stimulation Best Poster Award

March 6, 2023

At this year’s International Brain Stimulation Conference in Portugal at the end of February, Kuri Takahashi, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology and Neurosciences, was awarded for her poster presentation. Kuri Takahashi’s research aims to develop a novel non-invasive stimulation protocol to induce and stabilise delta activity in the human brain. Her recent study showed that the new stimulation protocol was able to enhance delta EEG activity. Delta frequency is the predominant movement in the NREM sleep stage and is involved in the consolidation of declarative memory. Future work will focus on the application of the delta stimulation protocol to studies of information processing during sleep and sleep disorders.

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Sleep deprivation affects cognitive performance

Feb 2, 2023

Anyone who has ever had a night of poor sleep or no sleep at all knows how much the lack of sleep can affect concentration the next day. Researchers at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors have studied how exactly sleep deprivation affects brain performance. The results show that not only brain activation, but also the alteration of connections between neurons is affected by sleep deprivation. Both have a significant effect on memory performance and working memory.

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Work ability is influenced by physical fitness, social life and cognitive functions

Jan 23, 2023

Due to demographic change, it is becoming increasingly important to maintain the working capacity of ageing workforces. In a recent study, researchers from the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) therefore investigated the relationship between changing lifestyle factors, cognitive functions and their influence on work ability. The results show that the ability to work is influenced by various factors in the course of working life.

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Work of the Senate Commission on Food Safety will be funded for three years

Jan 11, 2023

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG – German Research Foundation) is funding the work of the Senate Commission on Food Safety (Senatskommission zur gesundheitlichen Bewertung von Lebensmitteln – SKLM) with around 800,000 euros over the next three years. The SKLM advises the DFG Senate as well as federal and state governments, parliaments and authorities on food safety issues. Since summer 2017, Prof. Dr. Jan Hengstler, Head of the Toxicology Research Department at IfADo, has been the Chair of the SKLM.

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What mechanisms are at work in paracetamol poisoning of the liver?

December 28, 2022

Acetaminophen poisoning (APAP) is the second most common cause of liver transplantation worldwide. However, not all the correlations that lead to liver damage from APAP are yet known. With the help of functional imaging, the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) is therefore investigating in a new research project, on the one hand, how temporary bile stasis after APAP poisoning contributes to liver damage. On the other hand, research is being conducted to find out whether this liver damage can be reduced by medication. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and will run for three years.

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Half-time in the FELICE project: Shaping the future of global manufacturing

Dec 20, 2022

In the EU research project “Flexible Assembly Manufacturing with Human-Robot Collaboration and Digital Twin Models” (FELICE), IfADo and numerous European partners are researching, among other things, collaboration between humans and robots in the context of production. One focus of the work is on the physical and cognitive ergonomics of employees in production. The next steps consist of defining prerequisites and requirements for human-machine collaboration. For this, application scenarios are created in cooperation with the needs and experiences of assembly workers.

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EU research project on sustainable work successfully completed

Dec 19, 2022

The EU-funded research project sustAGE (smart environments for person-centred sustainable work and well-being) was successfully completed in 2022. Together with international project partners, IfADo addressed the question of how the cognitive, emotional and physical performance of older workers can be analysed and increased in everyday working life. The sustAGE system developed in the project was integrated in a Greek port and in Italian production plants of the automotive industry.

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