A groundbreaking clinical study led by Prof. Dr. Christian Plewnia from the University Hospital Tübingen confirms the efficacy and safety of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for treating persistent auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia. The results, published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, show that the non-invasive method is a promising addition to drug and psychotherapeutic approaches. Auditory hallucinations, the hearing of voices without an external sound source, are a significant burden for many people with schizophrenia. These often threatening or commanding voices frequently do not respond sufficiently to conventional treatments or are poorly tolerated by patients. TMS uses magnetic fields to stimulate specific brain regions responsible for speech and language comprehension through the skull. However, large-scale studies proving the efficacy of this method have been lacking until now. The study, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and conducted at seven German university psychiatric hospitals with 138 adults…

The Thuringian startup Healyan is working on a novel therapy approach that aims to promote mental states such as relaxation, concentration, and sleep through a combination of LED glasses and an app. The company is supported by the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) in Ilmenau, which is developing a special sound generator to enhance the effect of light pulses with brain-stimulating tones. The technology aims to be used in the future as a medical product for conditions such as Alzheimer's, depression, and anxiety and sleep disorders. Behind Healyan is Philipp Caspari, a graduate of TU Ilmenau and a former scholarship holder at the University of California, Berkeley. The Healyan technology is based on audiovisual neuromodulation, in which stroboscopic light pulses and specific sound modulations, such as isochronic or binaural tones, act specifically on the brain. These can influence brain waves and promote states such as relaxation or concentration. In a previous cooperation with Fraunhofer IDMT, the synchronization of light pulses with music was already…

Researchers from the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University Hospital Essen have identified a promising vulnerability in tumors with mutations in the tumor suppressor gene BAP1, which are associated with aggressive cancers such as uveal melanoma and kidney cancer. Dr. Samuel Peña-Llopis and Dr. Silvia Vega-Rubin-de-Celis published their findings in the journal "Autophagy" and presented a new treatment approach using already known active substances. The scientists found that BAP1 mutations activate the proto-oncogene SRC and disrupt autophagy, the cellular self-cleaning process. In laboratory experiments and tumor organoids created from patient material, they succeeded in specifically influencing this effect. By combining SRC inhibitors such as Dasatinib and Saracatinib with autophagy-promoting agents such as Tat-BECN1 and SW076956, they achieved synergistic effects that effectively inhibited tumor growth in BAP1-deficient tumors. This personalized therapy approach combines kinase inhibitors with autophagy inducers and opens up new perspectives for the treatment of BAP1-mutated tumors. The results were…