It was a bit of a sensation earlier this year: The Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) Würzburg in collaboration with the Julius Maximilian’s University (JMU) published new findings on CRISPR, the natural gene scissors that are part of bacterial immune systems. In a collaboration between the lab of Chase Beisel – principal investigator at HIRI and professor at JMU – and the lab of Cynthia Sharma, also professor at JMU, research on CRISPR RNAs resulted in the development of a new diagnostic platform. They called it LEOPARD.
Unlike established tools such as standard PCR tests currently used in the COVID pandemic, LEOPARD provides much more information in just one test. This would give doctors a more thorough understanding of a patient’s health status and could potentially lead to better treatment plans for patients.
Award-Winning Research
For its research and the perspective to translate LEOPARD into a powerful clinical application, HIRI was already awarded the "Medical Valley Award" of the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy. The team of HIRI and JMU also emerged as a winner in this year's “Science Breakthroughs of the Year”, an annual competition of the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin. In addition, LEOPARD was funded within the exploratory phase of BMBF’s "GO-Bio initial" program this past year.
The subsequent BMBF funding of up to roughly 733,000 euros is now dedicated to advance the marketability of LEOPARD. The grant will enable HIRI to evaluate high-performing Cas nucleases and a new readout method to translate the LEOPARD technology into a more practical diagnostic.
LEOPARD is both an impressive and a successful example of the overarching goal of our scientific work: the strive for a translation from basic RNA research into clinical application. I greatly appreciate the current BMBF funding as it encourages and supports us to vehemently pursue our goals.
About Go-Bio Initial
Through its "GO-Bio initial” funding program, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) supports promising innovative research approaches in life sciences. The overarching goal of the program is the transfer into practical application. Only actual eligible costs are funded through "GO-Bio initial”.
About the HIRI
The Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) is the first institution worldwide to combine research on ribonucleic acids (RNA) with infection biology. Based on new insights from its strong basic research program, the institute aims to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to better diagnose and treat human infections.
HIRI is a site of the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research Braunschweig (HZI) in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg (JMU) and is located on the Würzburg Medical Campus.
